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Cf)c  Ipul^can  lecture^  for  1874 


SIN 


AS    SET   FORTH 


IN  HOLY  SCRIPTURE 


r 

GEORGE   M.  STRAFFEN,  M.  A. 

VICAR   OF  CLIFTON,    YORK 


NEW   YORK 

E.  P.  BUTTON  AND  COMPANY 

J VI  Broadway 

1876 


To  the  Reader. 

THE  HULSEAN  LECTURES  for  1874  were  ordered 
tOL  be  preached  before  the  University  in  the  spring 
of  1875.  This  is  mentioned  to  explain  the  seeming 
delay  in  the  appearance  of  this  volume. 

The  writer  is  aware  that  the  Lectures  are 
shorter  than  usual ;  but  his  regret  is  that  he  has 
not  beeft   able  to   make  them   shorter  still. 


York  : 

July,  1875. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Works  on  sin      .....        ...  vii. 

LECTURE 

I,     The  sense  of  sin 9 

II.     The  nature  of  sin 23 

III.  The  organ  of  sin 39 

IV.  The  consequents  of  sin 61 

v.     The  disclosure  of  sin 73 

VI.     The  propitiation  for  sin S9 


LIST   OF    BOOKS. 


The  following   are    the  principal   works  on  sin 
which  have  been  consulted^  and  the  editions  used: 

King  (Abp.)  An  Essay  on  the  origin  of  evil :  translated  and 
edited  by  E.  Law.     2  Vols.     Ed.  4.     Cambridge,  1758. 

Miiller  (Julius)  Die  Christliche  Lehrevon  derSilnde.  2  Vols. 
Ed.  5.     Breslau,  1867. 

Krabbe  (Otto)  Die  Lehre  von  der  Siinde  iind  vom  Tode. 
Hamburg,  1836. 

Klaiber  (C.  B.)  Die  Neictestamefitliche  Lehre  von  der  Siinde 
nnd  Erlosung.     Stuttgart,  1836. 

Tholuck  (A.)  Die  Lehre  von  der  Siinde  tuid  vojn  Versohner, 
Ed.  6.     Hamburg,  1839. 

Umbreit  (F.  W.  C.)  Die  Sunde.     Hamburg,  1853. 

Ritter  (Heinrich)  Uber  das  B'dse  und seine  Folgen.      Gotha, 
1869. 

Manning  (Abp.)  Sin  and  its  consequences.     Ed.  2.     London, 
1874. 


LECTURE    I. 

THE    SENSE    OF    SIN. 


Ov  juev  yap  rl  ttov  Igtlv  oiCvpurepov  avSp6c. 

HOM.  //.  xvii.  446. 


Ouam  timeo  miser ! 
Nihil  est  miserius  quam  animus  hominis  conscius. 
Plaut.  MosteL  iii.  i.  12. 


THS0LOGIC&L 


THE   SENSE    OF   SIN. 

|f  lljaw  Wst  n0t  fotll,  exit  littl^  at  tl^^  Wor. 

Gen.  iv.  7. 

The  Speaker  is  the  Lord  God  ;  the  person  spoken 
to  is  Cain.  And  the  words  are  remarkable,  as  in 
other  respects  so  in  this,  that  in  them  for  the  first 
time  in  our  Bible  there  occurs  the  word  Sin.^  A 
short  word,  but  a  terrible !  Who  can  think  of  it 
without  emotion.  For  consider  what  it  represents. 
Consider  what  sin  has  caused,  is  daily  causing,  in 
this  our  world.  Nay,  think  even  of  the  speculative 
interest  pertaining  to  the  word.  What  bewildering 
questions  cluster  around  it!  What  eager  contro- 
versies have  raged  concerning  it !  Whence  came 
sin  .?    Who  is  the  author  of  it .?    When,  and  how,  did 


1  On  the  etymolog)'  of  the  word  sin  [A.  S.  syn,  Germ. 
Siinde\  and  on  the  principal  Biblical  words  for  sin,  see  Julius 
Miiller,  Die  Christliche  Lehre  von  der  Silnde,  vol.  i.  pp. 
114-121.  (5th  Ed.) 


J  2  THE  SENSE  OF  SIN. 

it  begin  ?  Are  sin  and  evil  identical  ?  If  not,  how 
are  they  related  ?  How  can  the  existence  of  sin  be 
reconciled  with  God's  character  and  sovereignty  ? 
Is  sin  anything  but  an  eternal  necessity  ?  Nay,  is 
it  anything  but  good  in  another  form ;  a  potency 
without  which  good  could  not  be,  or  would  be  less 
good  ?  Or,  lastly,  is  sin  anything  whatsoever  ?  is  it 
not  a  mere  bugbear  which  men  have  foolishly  raised 
and  which  they  refuse  to  see  laid  ? 

Such,  and  such  like,  are  the  questions  which  in 
all  ages  have  been  asked  in  connection  with  sin, 
which  have  given  rise  to  the  keenest  and  wildest 
speculations.  And  still  are  such  questions  as  rife 
among  men  as  ever.  What  shall  we  say  to  them  ? 
Shall  we,  as  is  so  often  done,  denounce  them  as 
barren  and  dangerous  ?  No  :  for  they  are  not  neces- 
sarily such,  at  least  not  all  of  them.  If  reverently 
pursued,  they  may  yield  profit  instead  of  harm. 
And  the  very  fact  that  the  questions  have  been  so 
persistently  and  universally  asked  testifies  to  two 
things :  first  to  their  naturalness,  and  secondly  to 
men's  innate  conviction  of  their  importance.^     Yet 

1  Compare,  both  as  regards  universality  and  intensity,  such 
an  enquiry  as  {e.  g\)  that  concerning  the  Pkirality  of  Worlds. 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN.  j^ 

certain  it  is  that  speculations  concerning  sin  have 
too  often  proved  not  merely  unprofitable  but  peril- 
ous and  impious.  They  have  led  to  God's  ar- 
raignment at  the  bar  of  man's  understanding,  yea 
even  to  His  condemnation !  Let  us  eschew  such 
folly  and  wickedness.  And  in  order  thereto,  let  us 
leave  aside  the  inquiry  concerning  the  origination 
of  sin.^  One  thing  only  we  are  quite  sure  of,  and 
that  is,  that  God  is  not  the  author  of  sin.^  He  is  all- 


1 '  Ouaerebam  Unde  Afalum,  et  male  quserebam,  et  in  ipsa 
inquisitione  mea  non  videbam  malum.' — Aug.  Confess,  vii.  5. 
One  reason  why  the  Fathers  set  themselves  against  such 
discussions  was  that  they  had  come  to  identify  them  with 
Gnostic  error  and  impiety :  cf.  Tertul.  De  Prcese?\  HcEret.  c. 
vii. :  '  Unde  malum  et  quare  ?  et  unde  homo  et  quomodo  ?  et> 
quod  maxima  Valentinus  proposuit,  imde  E>eMS  ? ' 

2  ....  /cat  Ti^v  [i£v  ayaduv  ovdiva  aXXov  alriaTEOv^  tuv  6e 
KaKuv  aA/l'  arra  Sec  t^r/relv  ra  alria,  aTJC  ov  rbv  Oeov.  Plat.  Z)e 
Rep.  ii.  379  c.  This  fundamental  truth  has  not  by  any  means 
been  always  firmly  held,  even  in  the  Christian  Church,  Ire- 
n^us  found  it  necessary  to  write  ITf/^t  //omp.t'^C,  V  '^^P'-  ™^  i^V 
elvai  Tov  Qedv  ■K0L7]Tyv  KaKuv  (Eiiseb.  Hisf.  Eccl.  V.  26.)  Basil  has 
left  a  homily  on  the  same  subject  (Op.  Tom.  ii.  p.  72  sqq.  Ed. 
Gamier).  And,  to  come  to  more  modern  times,  at  the  Refor- 
mation one  of  the  leading  religious  bodies  were  charged  with 
making  God,  by  its  teaching,  the  Author  of  sin  :  a  charge 
which  it  repudiated  in  a  singular  fashion.  (See  the  Confessio 
Helvetica  11.  cap.  viii.)  The  charge  has  been  often  repeated 
since. 


I  .  THE  SENSE  OF  SIN. 

holy ;  He  could  never  have  caused  it.  For  wise,  though 
to  us  mysterious,  reasons.  He  has  been  pleased  to 
permit  it,  both  among  men  and  antecedently  among 
angels,  but  He  never  caused  it.  Further  than  this  we 
shall  in  vain  try  to  penetrate  :  we  shall  only  lose,  and 
probably  endanger  ourselves.  Sin,  we  know,  is  there ; 
but  why  it  is  there,  and  how  it  came  to  be  there, 
no  human  being  can  tell  us ;  and  God  has  not  been 
pleased  to  tell  us,  probably  because  we  could  not 
understand.  Sin  is  there,  and  there  with  God's  per- 
mission ;  but  why  God  gives  this  permission,  why 
He  ever  gave  it,  is  an  enquiry  utterly  beyond  us. 

But  if  we  may  not  penetrate  in  this  direction, 
there  are  other  directions  in  which  we  are  invited, 
and  should  strive,  to  penetrate.  For  no  subject 
concerns  us  more  than  the  subject  of  sin.  Sin  is 
the  grand  theme  of  Holy  Scripture  ;  and,  accord- 
ing to  our  views  of  sin,  will  be  our  personal  religion, 
will  be  the  color  and  complexion  of  our  spiritual 
life.  As  with  churches,  so  with  individuals,  the 
estimate  of  sin  determines  everything.^     And  for  a 


1  The  real  difference  between  the  Pure  faith  and  the 
Romish  faith  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Rationahstic  faith  on 
:the  other,  is  constituted,  not  so  much  by  particular  dogmas, 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN.  i  ^ 

right  estimate  of  sin  we  must  turn  to  the  Bible. 
We  need  not  turn  thither  to  learn  the  fact  of  sin. 
That  is  palpably  before  us.  We  cannot  separate 
ourselves  from  life's  dread  realities.  Whether  or 
not  we  are  persuaded  with  the  prophet  that  because 
of  sin  tJie  earth  motirneth  and fadetJi  away;  is.  xxxiv.  4. 
or,  with  the  psalmist,  that  because  of  sin  Ps.  ixxxii. 
all  the  foundations  of  the  earth  are  out  of 
course ;  or,  with  the  apostle,  that  because 
of  sm  the  whole  creation  groaneth  and  22, 
travaileth  in  pain  together  tmtil  now :  yet  the  fact 
of  sin  is  unmistakeably  before  us.  And  few  indeed 
think  of  disputing  this  fact ;  though  some  try  to 
rob  it  of  all  its  significance.  Some  say:  ^ there  is 
no  evil ;  what  seems  so  only  seems  so  ;  the  suffer- 
ings and  sorrows  of  life  are  only  means  to  greater 
good.'  But  how  hollow  such  professions  are,  is 
generally  best  shown  by  the  utterers  themselves. 
For  wait  till  life's  heavier  trials  come  upon  them, 
till  their  health  fails,  or  their  schemes  miscarry,  or 
want  overtakes  them,  or  death  desolates  their  home, 
and  where  is  their  consolation  }     Their  own  hearts 

as  by  the  conception  of  sin.     For  the  conception  of  sin  de- 
termines the  conception  of  redemption. 


J  5  THE  SENSE  OF  SIN. 

mock  them.^  Does  any  father,  for  instance,  who  is 
burying  a  beloved  child,  ever  accept  his  lot  as 
normal  and  proper?  Nay,  does  any  one,  when 
brought  into  real  personal  contact  with  death,  ever 
regard  it  otherwise  than  as  evil  ?  Men  may  speak 
of  it  as  a  natural  necessity,  'or  as 

kind  Nature's  signal  of  retreat,'  2 
but  the  heart  revolts  at  it.     And  no  optimism  and 
no  philosophy   will  avail  to  efface    its   dread    sig- 
nificance.    The  lip  may  cry,  'It   is  well,'  but  the 
wounded  spirit  will  groan  for  anguish. 

But  the  generality  of  men  make  no  pretence  to 
hide  their  convictions  on  this  matter.  They  may 
not  be  able  nicely  to  discriminate  or  define,  but 
they  know  full  well  that  they  have  to  do  with 
deadly  potencies.  They  know  that  they  are  con- 
stantly bringing  themselves  into  collision  with  God 
and  his  law,  and  that  the  consequences    are  always 

1  '  Bright  reason  will  mock  thee, 

Like  the  sun  from  a  wintry  sky : 
From  thy  nest  every  rafter 
Will  rot,  and  thine  eagle  home 
Leave  thee  naked  to  laughter, 
When  leaves  fall  and  cold  winds  come.' 

Shelley,  The  Flight  of  Love. 

2  Johnson,  Va?iity  of  Hiunan  JV/shes,  end. 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN.  i  7 

disastrous  :  far  more  disastrous  than  immediately 
and  outwardly  appears.  And  innumerable  are  the 
proofs  which  they  give  of  the  strength  of  this  con- 
viction. The  poor  say  of  one  who  has  addicted 
himself  to  evil  courses,  '  He  is  gone  to  the  bad,'  ^ 
plainly,  though  indefinitely,  intimating  their  sense 
of  the  direfulness  of  his  choice.  And  there  is 
scarcely  any  one,  however  ill-instructed,  who  does 
not  instantly  and  instinctively  distinguish  between 
misfortune  and  misconduct — between,  say,  the  loss 
of  a  limb  and  the  betrayal  of  a  trust — and  who 
does  not  recognise  something  at  least  of  the  dread 
significance  of  the  latter.  And  even  those  who 
have  gone  astray  themselves  will  not  unfrequently 
try  to  keep  others  from  following  their  example. 
Many  a  drunken  father  will  do  his  utmost  to  save 
his  son  from  drunkenness,  and  will  grieve  bitterly 
if  his  efforts  are  unavailing.  And  so  in  more  gen- 
eral matters.  How  profound,  for  example,  and  how 
universal  is  the  horror  which  a  great  crime  excites ! 

1  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  we  have  not  kept  the  use  of  the 
noun  '  bad  '  as  equivalent  to  both  sin  and  evil,  like  the  Ger- 
man '■  Bose.' — Bad  is  probably  derived  from  the  verb  to  bay: 
bad  =  bayed  {i.e.  barked  at),  defied,  spurned,  abhorred.  See 
Tooke,  Diver,  of  Pur  ley  ^  vol.  2.  pp.  79,  80.     (Ed.  1829.) 


I  8  THE  SENSE  OF  SIN. 

And  how  all  but  indelible  is  the  memory  which  it 
leaves  behind  !  Generation  after  generation  will 
treasure  up  the  deed,  and  account  the  very  spot 
accursed  that  witnessed  it !  ^ 

But  the  highest  tribute  to  the  actuality  of  sin  is 
furnished  by  the  individual  conscience.-  Men  are 
conscious  not  only  of  a  disturbance  and  conflict 
within,  but  of  personal  shortcoming  and  unworthi- 
ness.  They  feel  that  they  are  not  only  to  be  pitied 
but  blamed,  not  only  unfortunate  but  culpable. 
This  sense  of  guilt  exists  in  various  degrees,  and 
sometimes  may  seem  to  be  entirely  wanting.  But 
in  the  great  majority  of  instances  it  is  undeniably 
there.  All  testimony  and  all  literature  certify  to  the 
fact.  And  a  truly  momentous  fact  it  is,  a  primor- 
dial fact  with  regard  to  man's  constitution  and  being. 
It  witnesses  to  that  religious  nature  which  is  man's 
great  glory,  and  which  forms  his  great  security. 
Could  you  extirpate  this  internal  sense  you  would  not 


1  The  writer  once  accompanied  some  school  children  on  an 
excursion.  They  were  exceedingly  merry  and  noisy,  But 
when,  on  coming  to  a  certain  spot,  he  said  :  '  Here  a  murder 
was  once  committed,'  it  was  striking  to  see  the  instant  change. 
Solemnity  and  awe  were  on  every  face. 

^  See  Lecture  V. 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN,  Iq 

only  abolish  all  morality,  but  you  would  overturn 
the  very  foundations  of  society.  But  this  sense  can- 
not be  extirpated.  Many  have  tried  to  do  so  :  ^  to 
argue  it  away,  and  scoff  it  away,  and  even  jest  it 
away  :  but  in  vain.  There  is  something  in  man 
that  testifies  of  Duty  and  Order  and  Beauty  and 
Excellence,  and  that  reproves  him  when  he  violates 
them  or  falls  short  of  their  requirements.  And  what 
is  very  remarkable,  the  sense  of  falling  short — of 
failure — is  even  deeper  and  more  oppressive  than 
the  sense  of  transgression.^  Who  ever  realised  the 
dreams  and  aspirations  of  his  youth  }  Let  a  man 
have  succeeded  never  so  well  in  life,  even  beyond 
his  own  expectations,  still  he  is  not  satisfied.  His 
visions  of  what  might  be,  and  should  be,  his  visions 
of  Beauty  and  Nobleness  and  Loveliness,  never 
receive  an  adequate  embodiment.  Whence  this 
ideal .?  and  what  its  meaning  t  It  comet h 
down  from  the  Father  of  lights ;  and  it 


^  '  arctis 

Religionum   animos  nodis    exsolvere    pergo.' 

Lucret.  De  Rcr.  Nat,  iv.  6. 
2  Corresponding  herewith   is  the  fact   that  the    most  com- 
mon word  in  the  New  Testament  for  sin  is  dimprla — a  missing 
of  the  mark. 


20  THE  SENSE  OF  SIN. 

testifies  to  an  infinite  capacity  and  an  infinite  des- 
tiny.    And  because  a  man  feels  that  he  has  fallen 

short,  and  is  continually  falling  short   of 

2  Pet.  i.  10.  .,       1  r  1 

his   calling  and  election,    he   blames    and 

condemns  himself,  he  is  uneasy  and  unhappy.     In 

early  life,  indeed,  there  is  httle  of  this  feeling.    For 

then  the  trial  has  not  been    made,  the  failure  has 

not  been  felt.     But  a  short  trial  suffices  to  teach 

and  to  sadden.       Man  goes  confidently  forth  to  the 

conflict  of  life,  with  endless  visions  of  conquest  and 

glory,  but  Jiis  cojcntenajice  soon  falls.  Why 
Gen.  iv.  5.  r  r 

does  it  fall }  Because  of  his  sense  01 
shortcoming  and  of  blameworthiness,  in  other  words 
his  sense  of  sin.  He  may  call  sin  by  what  name 
he  pleases — and  it  is  generally  a  long  time  before 
he  recognises  its  full  significance  ^ — but  he  knows 
that  there"  is  something  unclean  and  menacing 
croncJiing  at  his  door,  and  that  he  has 
brought  it  there  himself.  Hence  he  is  full 
of  misgivings  and  forebodings.  Others  may  praise 
and  extol  him,  or,  if  there  has  been  some  fault,  may 


1 ' 


To  paint  this   baseness  nature  is  too  base  : 
This  darkness  yields  not  but  to  beams  of  grace.' 

Sir  John  Beaumont  (ti628). 


THE  SENSE  OF  SIN.  2 1 

make  the  fullest  excuses  for  him,  but  he  himself 
mentally  adds  the  damning  But  !  ^  And  thus  a  con- 
stant conflict  goes  on  within.  And  unless  an  extra- 
neous omnipotent  Power  intervenes  to  rescue  him 
from  himself,  and  to  raise  him  above  himself,  he 
falls  farther  and  farther  away  :  and  knows  it.  Life 
may  wear  outwardly  a  smiling  aspect,  he  may  learn 
to  tutor  his  face,  and  neither  by  word  nor  sign 
betray  his  uneasiness  :  but  a  worm  is  gnawing 
within,  its  foul  trail  is  everywhere  visible.  His 
eyes  see  it,  if  others  see  it  not.  And,  what  espe- 
cially grieves  him,  this  trail  is  most  conspicuous 
among  his  choice  flowers.  For  every  man  has  a 
little  garden  of  the  soul  which  he  tenderly  cherishes. 
Why  do  its  flowers  grow  so  ill  }  Why  will  they  not 
blow  }  Why  does  the  worm  appear  with  the  bud, 
and  even  before  }  And — strangest  thing  of  all — 
why,  instead  of  pitying  himself,  does  the  man 
reproach  and  condemn  himself  ?  Why  cannot  he 
take  things  as  they  are  ?  Why  must  dread  precede 
and  regret  follow  so  many  of  his  actions  .''     Why,  in 


1     TPO.   'A}'mc  /U£v,  w  TTOf,  Xeipag  alfiaroq  (pipeic 
4>AI.   Xelpe<;  /u-ev  dyval,  (ppyv  &  ex^i  fJ^lafrtm  ti. 

Eurip.  Hippol.  316. 


2  2  THE  SENSE  OF  SIN. 

short,  cannot  he  do  as  he  pleases,  and  be  what  he 
Acts.  xvii.  pleases  ?  .  .  .  Because  he  is  tJie  offspring  of 
^  '  ^^'  God.  Because  even  in  his  lost  estate,  and 
worst  estate,  God  will  not  leave  him  to  himself. 
Because  the  shadow  of  Eternity,  if  not  its  radiance, 
is  evermore  upon  him. 

And  thus,  in  spite  of  himself,  man  bears  con- 
tinual testimony  to  his  own  greatness.^  His  very 
inquietude  is  more  precious  than  all  the  animal 
enjoyment  in  the  world.  For  if  it  witnesses  of  a 
Fall  and  of  Sin,  it  witnesses  also  of  a  divine  origi- 
Phii.  iii.  ^^1  ^'^^  of  a  heavenly  Father.  It  tells  of  a 
^^  vocation  on  high?  It  prompts  to  a  heavenly 

quest.     It  points  the  harassed  and  mournful  soul  to 
its  true  and  only  rest.  .  .  .  Fecisti  7tos  ad 
Confess.       Xe,   ct   tnqnieUiin   est   cor  nostnmi  donee 
reqiiicscat  in  Te. 


1  '  Toutes  ces  miseres-lk  memes  prouvent  sa  grandeur.   Ce 
sont  miseres  de  grand  seigneur,  mis^res  d'un  roi  ddpossddd.' 
—Pascal,  Pensees,  vol.  ii.  p.  173  (Ed.  Astie). 
2  .  .  .  TTiq  avu  K'ki]oeu£  tov  Qeov. 


LECTURE    II. 

THE   NATURE  OF   SIN. 


Tqvto  6'  EGTLV  b  ?Jyov(nv  of  ^i7.of  avrC)  Tvag  avOpurtog  (piaec 
re  earc  Kal  bpOug  exei  to  Se'iv  elvat  rotovrov  ■  to  6e  a7.T]deia  ye 
TvdvTQV  d/j.apTfjfj.dTO)v  did  ttjv  a^odpa  eavTov  (^uliav  oltlov  indaTU) 
yiyvETai  eadaTOTe.  tv^Iovtcl  yap  Ttepl  to  (piTiovfievov  6  (^l7mv  •  uaTe 
rd  diKata  koI  Ta  ay  add  Kal  ra  KaAd  KaKug  Kp'ivei^  to  avTov  irpo  tov 
alrjdovg  del  Ttfxav  delv  rjyoviievog. 

Plat.  De  Legg.  v.  731  e. 


The  wretch,  concentred  all  in  self, 
Living,  shall  forfeit  fair  renown, 
And,  doubly  dying,  shall  go  down 
To  the  vile  dust  from  whence  he  sprung — 
Scott,  Lay  of  Last  M.  vi.  i. 


THE  NATURE  OF  SIN. 

#^,  W  not  tlji^  HbommaliU  lljmg  lljcit  |  \)nh, 

Jer.  xliv.  4. 

If  it  were  possible  to  give  a  definition  of  sin,  this 
sentence  would  furnish  one.  '  Sin  is  an  abomina- 
tion that  God  hates.'  But  in  truth  this  is  only  to 
say,  '  Sin  is  sin.'  The  greatest  things,  on  which- 
ever side  of  the  eternal  boundary  line,  cannot  be 
defined.  Ask  for  a  definition  of  joy  or  of  hate, 
and  what  will  you  get  }  You  will  get  verbal 
descriptions  more  or  less  suggestive,  but  you  will 
get  no  proper  definitions. 

So  of  sin.  Sin,  when  defined,  is  always  defined 
out  of  itself  :  in  equivalent,  not  really  interpreta- 
tive, terms.  And  this  is  true  of  those  seeming 
definitions  of  sin  which  meet  us  in  Holy  Scripftire. 
They  are  descriptions  and  intimations,  rather  than 
definitions,  though  one  of  them,  at  least,  has  all 


26  THE  NATURE  OF  SIN. 

the  form  of  a  definition.^  And  yet  it  is  of  the 
greatest  importance  that  we  attend  to  these  scrip- 
tural indications.  For  they  will  enable  us,  not 
indeed  to  understand  sin — for  sin  cannot  be  under- 
stood— but  to  apprehend  something  of  its  fearful 
nature,  to  bring  home  to  us  the  fact   that   sin   is 

Rom.  vii.     indeed  exceedinor  sijiful. 

13. 

I  John  iii.  Sin,  says  the  Apostle   John,    is   the 

4- 

transgressi07i  of  the  law  {a'M)fj.ia).     And  in 

I  John  V.  another  place  he  says,  All  unrighteous- 
ness (ddczio)  is  sin.  If  to  these  declara- 
tions of   S.  John  we  add    the  declaration 

Rom.  XIV. 

23-  of    S.    Paul,    zvJiatsoever  is   not   of  faith 

James  iv. 

17.  {ly.  ruareu)^)   is  sin ;    and   the   assertion  of 

S.  James,  to  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good  aiid 
doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin  ;  we  shall  have  furnished 
ourselves  with  the  main  New  Testament  answers 
to  the  question.  What  is  sin } 

And  it  is  plain  that  these   Scriptures  point  not 


^  Bp.  Pearson  insists  that  i  John  iii.  4  is  '  a  proper  defini- 
tion of  sin'  (^On  the  Creed,  Art.  x.  pp.  360,  361,  Ed-  1669). 
But,  not  to  mention  other  considerations,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  '  lawlessness '  is  only  one  of  the  aspects  under 
which  Scripture  presents  sin  to  us. 


THE  NATURE  OF  SIN.  27 

only  to  separate  acts  of  sin  but  also  to  a  state  of 
sin.  Sin  is  every  act  and  every  state  which  is 
contrary  to  God's  law.  For  we  are  all  subject 
to  God's  law :  the  whole  creation  is.  God  made 
all  beings  and  all  things,  made  them  of  and  for 
Himself  :  because  of  TJiy  will  tJicy  were^  ^^^  l^ 
a7id  they  were  created.  Consequently  what-  "* 
ever  laws  God  might  be  pleased  to  assign  to  His 
creatures,  those  laws  they  were  bound  to  obey. 
Now  two  parts  of  God's  creation,  the  inanimate  and 
irrational  parts,  do  obey  His  laws.  The  stars  never 
leave  their  orbits  ;  plants  grow  and  bloom  as  He 
wishes ;  the  birds  of  the  air,  the  beasts  of  the  field, 
the  fishes  of  the  sea  all  do  and  are  what  God  wills  : 
they  cannot  be  and  do  otherwise.  But  to  us  His 
rational  creatures  God  has  left  it  optional,  though 
optional  at  our  own  peril,  whether  we  will  be  and 
do  according  to  his  will  or  not :  in  other  words, 
whether  we  will  obey  His  laws  or  not.  Nay,  not 
only  need  we  not  obey  God's  laws,  but  we  may,  if 
we  please,  set  ourselves  deliberately  against  them, 
may  resist,  break,  defy  them.  To  do  this,  or  any 
part  of  this,  is  to  sin.  And  the  mere  surface 
presentment  of  the  matter  ought  to  give  us  some 


2  S  THE  NA  TURK  OF  SIN. 

notion  what  sin  is,  as  well  as  excite  in  us  some 
dread  of  sin.  That  the  supreme  God,  the  all-wise 
Ruler  of  the  universe,  should  say,  '  This  shalt  thou 
do,  and  thus  shalt  thou  be ! '  and  that  man,  miser- 
able man,  the  creature  of  a  day,  should  presume  to 
say,  '  I  will  not ! '  must  surely  strike  us  as  something 
very  abnormal,  very  portentous.  Were  we  to  see 
some  puny  child  questioning  the  propriety  of  its 
father's  commands,  and  resolutely  setting  itself 
against  them,  we  should  not  be  long  in  forming 
and  expressing  an  opinion.  Yet  what  is  this  to 
man  settins:  himself  asfainst  God,  a  finite  and  fallen 
creature  opposing  the  Infinite  and  All-glorious 
Creator ! 

And  yet  it  may  obviously  happen  that  man's 
opposition  to  God  may  be  unconscious  on  his  part. 
He  may  break  God's  law,  not  only  without  wishing 
to  do  so,  but  without  knowing  that  he  is  doing  so. 
T>         ••      In  that  case  his  sin  is  said  to  be  '  dead  : ' 

Kom.  vii. 

°-  yy^p'-^   'm')ij.oo   diiapria   vf/.pd.      But  we  must 

guard  ourselves  from  supposing  that  such  dead,  or 
unconscious,  sin  is  no  sin  ;  in  other  words,  that  it 
has  no  guilt.  Numbers  have  fallen  into  this  mis- 
take.    They  have  failed  to  distinguish  between  the 


THE  NATURE  OF  SIN.  29 

existence  of  sin  and  the  consciousness  of  sin.^ 
Now  undoubtedly  the  Scripture  says  sin  ^^^^  ^^ 
is  not  imputed  {od/.  iUuysirac)  where  ^3- 
there  is  no  law :  but  it  says  not  that  it  is  not  extant, 
nor  that  it  is  not  noxious.  And  Scripture  says  also, 
and  says  nakedly,  As  many  as  have  sinned  ^^^^^  ii. 
withont  law  shall — not,  be  excused,  but  ^^" 
— -perish  without  law. 

Look  at  lower  analogies.  A  man  who  unwittingly 
breaks  the  law  of  the  land  is  not,  because  of  his  igno- 
rance, held  to  be  innocent,  or  exempted  from  pun- 
ishment. And,  to  take  a  different  illustration,  a 
man  may  be  infected  with  a  dangerous  disease  and 
yet  know  nothing  of  it,  nay  think  himself  quite 
well.^  So  in  the  spiritual  world.  Whatever,  and  in 
whatsoever,  God's  will  is  violated,  there  is  sin  and 
guilt,  whether  the  violation  be  known  or  not. 


1  S.  Paul,  referring  to  his  persecution  of  the  Church, 
said,  /  did  it  ignoraiitly  in  U7ibelief,  and  yet  he  professed 
himself  the  chief  of  sinfters.  (i  Tim.  i.  13,  15.) — See  more 
in  Lecture  IV.  p.  63  f. 

2  And  thus  in  fact  be  do7ibly  afflicted.  Bacon  {Advance- 
ment of  Lear7iing),  in  quoting  the  aphorism  of  Hippocrates, 
'  Qui  gravi  morbo  correpti  dolores  non  sentiunt,  iis  mens 
aegrotat,'  adds  the  remark :  '  they  need  medicine,  not  only  to 
assuage  the  disease,  but  to  awake  the  sense.' 


20  THE  NATURE  OF  SIN, 

Still,  it  is  with  conscious  sin — live  sin — that  we 
are  more  particularly  concerned.  And,  when  we 
come  to  analyse  it,  we  find  it  in  two  things:  (i)  a 
will  set  against  God's  will ;  and  (2)  this  will  exerted 
for  self. 

(i)  There  is  a  perverse  will,  a  will  contrary  to 
God's  will. 

It  is  the  will  of  man  which  determines  what  he 
is.  For  the  will  is  the  very  ground  of  personality, 
and  according  as  it  is,  must  a  man  be.  And  this 
will  of  man  is  free  :  has  the  power  of  self-determi- 
nation. Were  it  otherwise,  were  there  an  over- 
whelming necessity  upon  us — no  matter  whence — 
there  could  be  no  responsibility  and  no  culpability, 
no  merit  and  demerit,  no  virtue  and  no  vice.^  But 
men  are  free,  and  they  know  it.  How  far  indeed 
they  themselves  may  have  abridged  their  own 
freedom,  and  brought  themselves  under  a  kind  of 
necessity  ;  and  how  far  also,  being  what  they  are, 
they  have  need  of  God's  enabling  grace  effectually 


1  EI  yap  tljiapraL  r6v&z  riva  ayadbv  elvat  Kal  rdvSe  ^av?iOV,  ovff 
ovTog  CTrodc/croc  ovS'  eKelvoc  fiefiTrreog.  Kal  av,  el  fi^  Trpoaipiaec 
eXevBepa  Trpog  to  <pevyeiv  ra  alcrxpa  Kal  aipeiodai  to.  Kald  dvvafiiv  e^fi 
TO  avflp(')T7nov  yevog,  avairidv  kari  tuv  oTTCjad^TVOTe  Trparrofiiviov. — 
Just.  Mart.  A/>o/.  i.  43. 


THE  NATURE  OF  SIN.  ^I 

to  will  and  do  what  He  wills :  ^  these  are  different 
questions,  to  which  I  turn  not  now  aside.  The 
primary  fact  of  human  liberty  is  certain,  or  all 
consciousness  is  a  delusion,  and  there  is  no  foot- 
hold anywhere  either  for  religion  or  for  morality. 
But,  I  repeat  it,  men  are  free.     They  cannot 

'  justly  accuse 
Their  Maker,  or  their  making,  or  their  fate.'  ^ 

They  know  that  however  strong  outward  temptation 
may  be,  or  however  urgent  their  own  corrupt  solic- 
itations may  be,  the  will  is  not  forced  to  consent. 
And  when  the  will  consents,  when  it  chooses  what 
it  ought  not,  when,  in  short,  it  sets  itself  against 
God's  will,  then  there  is  sin. 

(2)  This  will  is  exerted  for  self.     It  is  a  self-will. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  very  root  of  the  matter, 
lays  bare  to  us  what  may  be  called  the  principle  of 
sin,  viz.  selfishness.^  Selfishness  is  always  fatal. 
Before  examining  it  in  its  higher  manifestations  let 


1  The  well-known  Synergistic  Controversy  (a.d.  1555- 
1577)  was  on  this  subject. 

2  Milton,  Par.  Lost,  iii.  112. 

3  '  Das  innerste  Wesen  der  Siinde,  das  sie  in  alien  ihren 
Gestalten  bestimmende  und  durchdringende  Princip,  ist  die 
Selbstsucht.'— Jul.  MuUer,  i.  178. 


^^  THE  NATURE  OE  SIN. 

lis  look  at  it  in  two  lower  domains,  in  the  family  and 
in  national  life. 

1.  Family  life  is  ruined  by  selfishness.  Its  worst 
evils  and  its  worst  imhappiness  spring  hence,  spring, 
that  is,  from  an  overweening  regard  to  self,  and  a 
corresponding  and  consequent  disregard  of  others. 
Avi  I  my  brothers  keeper  f  is  the  significant  ques- 
tion associated  with  the  first  sin  committed 

Gen.  iv.  Q.  ,  .   ,      r-      •    ,  i 

out  of  Paradise  which  Scripture  has  re- 
corded for  our  instruction  :  and  that  sin  was  fratri- 
•  cide.  And  the  same  question  is  virtually  repeated 
whenever  in  family  life  selfishness  asserts  itself. 
And  whenever  it  does  so,  the  harmony  of  the  f  am- 
james  iii.  ity  is  disturbed  if  not  destroyed  :  there  is 
1 6.  co7iftLsion  and  every  evil  work. 

2.  Look  at  selfishness  again  in  national  life. 
Nothing  is  more  fatal  whether  to  rulers  or  to  the 
ruled.  When  that  French  king  exclaimed,  '  The 
state,  it  is  I ! '  he  pronounced  the  death-sentence  on 
his  house,  and  indeed  on  French  kingship  generally. 
And  so  too  with  regard  to  the  ruled  :  in  proportion  as 
selfishness  is  operative  among  them,  that  is,  in  pro- 
portion as  a  nation  thinks  and  acts  solely  for  itself, 
in  the  same  proportion  is  there  national  declension 


THE  NA  TURE  OF  SIN.  ^  ^ 

and  ruin.     Such  selfishness  may  hide  itself — it  con- 
stantly does — under  the  name  of  patriot-    prov.  xiv. 
ism,  but  the  end  thereof  are  the  ways  of    12. 
death} 

3.  But  it  is  when  we  come  to  the  highest  domain 
of  all,  the  domain  of  religion,  that  the  full  baneful- 
ness  of  selfishness  appears.  A  heathen  writer  has 
defined  religion  to  be  the  proper  regard  and  service 
of  the  Divine  Being.^     But  selfishness  has  no  re- 


1  '  Le  patriotisme  exclusif,  qui  n'est  que  I'egoisme  des 
peuples,  n'a  pas  de  moins  fatales  consequences  que 
I'egoisme  individuel :  il  isole,  il  divise  les  habitants  des  pays 
divers,  les  excite  k  se  nuire  au  lieu  de  s'aider;  il  est  le  p^re 
de  ce  monstre  horrible  et  sanglant  qu'on  appelle  la  guerre.' 
Lamennais,  Le  livre  du  Peuple,  p.  81.  The  Abbe  adds  a 
warning  which  was  never  more  needed  than  at  present :  "  Le 
peuple  qui  souffre  pres  de  soi  I'oppression  d'un  autre  peuple 
creuse  la  fosse  ou  s'ensevelira  sa  propre  liberte.' 

The  writings  of  another  French  author,  who  has  lately  at 
tracted  much  attention,  abound  in  striking  remarks  on  the 
duty  of  supplanting  selfishness  by  '  altruisme.'  We  even  find 
him  maintaining  'que  notre  harmonie  morale  repose  exclu- 
sivement  sur  I'altruisme.'  {Catechisute  Positivisie,  p.  278, 
Ed.  2.)  But  Comte's  altruisme,  besides  utterly  discarding 
God,  has  reference  only  to  a  fictitious  humanity. 

2  'Religio  est  quae  superioris  cujusdam  Naturae,  quam 
Divinam  vocant,  curam  caerimoniamque  affert.'  Cic.  De  In- 
vent.  ii.  53.  '  Qui  omnia,  quae  ad  cultum  Deorum  pertinerent, 
diligenter  retractarent  et  tanquam  relegerent,  sunt  dicti  reli- 


34 


THE  NATURE  OF  SIN. 


gard  and  service  but  for  itself.  The  gratification 
of  self,  whether  in  the  lower  sphere  of  sense  or  the 
higher  sphere  of  mind,  the  aggrandisement  of  self,  the 
glorification  of  self,  these  are  its  objects,  and  these 
alone.  And  what  religion  then  can  there  be  ?  what 
regard  to  the  Supreme  Being?  what  homage  and 
Rom,  viii:  service  to  Him  ?  There  is  none,  and  there 
^'  can  be  none.      The  mind  of  the  flesh  (rd 

<pp6vr]p.a  zrjq  (rapxoq^,  says  the  Scripturc,  is  enmity 
against  God,  for  it  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God., 
neither  indeed  can  be.  The  mind  of  the  flesh  refers 
everything  to  itself,  and  judges  of  everything  by 
I  Cor.  X.  itself.  The  mind  of  the  flesh  is  ever  seek- 
Kom  iii  ^''^S  ^^^  owTi,  even  though  its  own  is  de- 
'^^-  striiction  and  misery.     And  to  attain  its 

own  it  makes  nothing  of  duty,  of  obligation,  of  grati- 
tude, nay  not  even  of  its  own  true  interests.      It 
thrusts  God  aside,  and  enthrones  self  in  His  place. 
Now  this  is  important.     It  reveals  to  us  the  very 


giosi,  ex  relegendo.'  \di^x^,De  Nat.Deor.\\.7.Z.  Augustine, 
who  quotes  (Z?^  Div.  QucEst.  31)  the  former  of  these  passages, 
hesitated  for  a  long  time  concerning  the  true  derivation  of 
rcligio,  but  finally,  like  Lactantius,  derived  it  from  religare 
and  not  from  relegere  {Retrac.  i.  13.)  SceVoigt's  Funda- 
mcntaldogmattc,  pp.  14,  15. 


THE  NA  TURE  OF  SIN.  n  ^ 

essence  of  sin.  ^  Whereas  all  man's  care  and  effort, 
his  very  *  meat/  should  be  to  do  the  will  of  ^^^  ^^^^^ 
God :  the  sinner's  determination  is  to  do  ^"^-  34- 
his  own  will.  Everything  tells  him  that  he  is  under 
a  Law — subordinate,  responsible.  Everything  also 
tells  him  that  God's  law  is  God's  love  ;^  and  that  to 
violate  it  is  to  be  guilty  of  something  more  than 
treason.  And  yet  he  violates  it.  He  determinately 
gratifies  Self.  He  makes  himself  his  own  lord,  his 
own  God. 

Does  not  this  shadow  out  to  us  both  the  terrible 
nature  of  sin  and  the  terrible  peril  of  sin  t  If  there 
is  a  God  ;  if  He  is  all-holy  and  all-powerful ;  ^  if 
human  beings  are  under  His  sway;  must  He  not, 


1  'Wollen  wir  ihr  (der  Siinde)  Wesen  in's  Wort  fassen, 
so  konnen  wir  es  nicht  entsprechender  bezeichnen  als,  7iega- 
tiv,  Entfremdung  von  Gott,  positiv,  gottwidrige  Neigung : 
zusammen,  Selbstsucht.' — Thomasius,  Christi  Person  tmd 
lVer^,Th.  1.  §  27  [Ed.  2]. 

2  '  For  sothly  the  lawe  of  God  is  the  love  of  God.' — 
Chaucer,  T/ie  PersoTies  Tale. 

3  How  grievous  to  think  of  a  man  like  John  Stuart  Mill 
ending  his  speculations  on  religion  by  making  God — suppos- 
ing Him  to  exist  at  all — to  be  a  Being  of  limited  power  and 
goodness.  See  his  posthumous  Essays  on  Religion  (London, 
1874).  This  is  to  adopt  what  Shaftesbury  in  his  Character- 
istics  call  daemonism. 


36 


THE  NA  TURK  OF  SIN. 


and  will  He  not,  vindicate  His  authority,  and  avenge 
Himself  on  His  adversaries  ?^  Nay,  if  I  dare  speak 
as  a  man,  God's  very  existence  is  at  stake.  For  sin 
not  only  defies  and  dishonours  God,  but  it  assails  His 
life.  Sin  is  Deicide.  If  it  could,  it  would  not  only 
dethrone  God  but  exterminate  Him.  And,  as  it  is, 
it  exterminates,  so  far  as  it  can,  all  good.  It  blasts 
life.  It  puts  into  operation  deadly  potencies  which 
nothing  but  Omnipotence  can  counteract.  It  flings 
wide  the  floodgates  of  destruction,  and  recks  not 
whom  or  what  the  deluge  whelms. 

And  no  wonder  then  that  thoughtful  men  should 
so  often  have  asked,  '  Why  is  all  this  permitted } 
Why  does  not  God  crush  sin  1  Why  does  He  suf- 
fer a  worm  to  set  Him  at  defiance  } '  But  this  is 
Ps.  xviii.  God's  concernment,  not  ours.  Our  con- 
^^'  cernment  is    to  be  irreproachable  towards 

Hun,  and  to  keep  ourselves  from  our  own  iniquity. 
God  has  sufficiently  indicated  to  us  the  nature 
of  sin,  and  His  abhorrence  of  sin.  And  He  bids 
us  fear,  and  eschew,  and  hate  it.     He  asks  of  us  no 


1  The  issue  of  the  sinner's  arrogant  opposition  to  God  is 
forcibly  expressed  in  Job  xv.  25-30.  See  Delitzsch's  Cojn- 
mentary,  Vol.  i.  pp.  265,  266  [Engl.  TransL] 


THE  NATURE  OF  SIN.  37 

Theodicy/  no  vindication  of  His  works  and  ways. 
These  are  sufficiently  vindicated  by  being  His  ;  and 
they  shall  one  day  be  openly  vindicated  before  all. 
But  God  calls  upon  us  as  we  love  life  and  love  Him, 
to  hate  what  He  hates.  Ye  that  love  the  pg  ^^.^jj^ 
Lord,  hate  evil !  But  ah,  that  summons  ^°- 
carries  with  it  its  own  limitation ;  and  it 
cannot  be  extended.  None  but  those  who  love  the 
Lord  can  hate  evil.  Some  —  too  many  —  think 
that  they  hate  it,  and  take  credit  to  themselves 
for  doing  so  ;  they  talk  much  of  upright  and  hon- 
ourable behaviour,  and  of  the  scorn  of  all  that  is 
false  and  base  ;  while  yet  they  know  nothing,  and 
will  know  nothing,  of  Sin.  So  far  has  their  enlight- 
enment gone  that  they  have  eliminated  Sin  from  the 
category  of  things.  And  thus,  in  Scriptural  words, 
they  have  made  God  a  liar.  Not  to  such,  ^  ■r^^^^  ^_ 
then,  however  amiable  or  well-meaning,  is  ^°* 
the  war-cry  of  the  Kingdom  of  Light  addressed.  But 


1  This  word  was  brought  into  general  use  by  the  far-famed 
book  of  Leibnitz,  Essais  de  Theodicee  sur  la  Bonte  de  Dieu, 
la  Liberie  de  P Homme  etVOrigine  du  Mai,  which  appeared  in 
1 710.     Since  then  many  similar  attempts  have  been  made 

*  To  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man.' 


'>S  THE  NATURE  OF  SIN. 

ye  who  know  differently,  who  l'7iozu  tJie  plague 
I  Kings  of  your  own  hearty  who  know  God's  loving- 
viii.  38.  kindness  in  Jesus  Christ,  be  ye  very  fearful, 
very  jealous.  Hate  sin  with  unmitigable  hatred  !  It 
is  the  only  thing  you  should  thus  hate,  because  the 
only  thing  that  is  essentially  evil.  Suffering  need 
not  be  an  evil  ;  calamity  need  not  be  an  evil;  death 
need  not  be  an  evil :  but  sin  is  always  an  evil,  it  is 
THE  EVIL  THING.  Hate  it  therefore,  hate  it  bitter- 
ly '  Hate  it  for  God's  sake,  for  it  assails  His  life. 
See  Heb.  Hate  it  for  Christ's  sake,  for  it  '  crucifies 
Heb.  X.  Him  afresh.'  Hate  it  for  the  Spirit's  sake, 
^^"  for  it '  does  despite  unto  Him.'     Hate  it  for 

your  own  sake,  for  it  degrades  and  ruins  you.     Hate 
it  for  its  sake,  for  it  is  most  hateful,  most  damnable. 
And,  hating  it,  fight  against  it,  and  in  the  strength 
•      of    God    overcome  it.     And  your  rezvard 

Luke   VI.  -^ 

35-  shall  be  great,  and  you  shall  be  the  sons  of 

the  Highest, 


LECTURE     in. 

THE    ORGAN    OF    SIN. 


Facillimum  est  exsecrari  carnem,  difficillimum  autem  non 
carnaliter  sapere. 

Aug.  De  Vera  Rel.  xx.  40. 


THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN. 

"^d  not  mx  tl^mioxz  rtigtt  xit  gour  moxtnl  bobg  i\nt  gje 
n^ianUi  0bg  it  m  t^t  lusts  tijmof. — Rom.  vi.  12. 

The  mortal  body  is  at  once  the  seat  of  sin  and  the 

organ  of  sin.     Sin  has  usurped  possession  of  it,  and 

uses  it  for  its  own  unlawful  purposes.    And  hence  S. 

Paul  calls  it  the  body  of  sin:  the  body,  that 

is,  in  which  sin  works  and  by  which  sin 

works.    He  also,  and  as  equivalent  thereto,  ^^^^  vii. 

calls  it  the  body  of  death.     Yet  of  course,  ^^' 

in  such  expressions   there  is   always  an  inclusive 

reference   to   the   indwelling  soul.^     Man's   body, 

says  the  Apostle  elsewhere,  is  a  physical  i  Cor.  xv. 

44. 
body    {nihim  4>oyu6^)    and   man  himself   a  v.  45,  and 

...  J    ,     '  V         -,     .  .  ,  Gen.  ii.  7. 

living  soul  {4>oy7)  Zaxra)  a   bemg  with  an 


^  To  oo>aa  ovx  afiaprdvu  Kad'  eavTO^  oA/ld   Slcl    tov   cC>}iaroq   rj 
'^^XV- — Cyril.  Catech.  iv.  23. 


.  ^  THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN. 

immaterial  as  well  as  material  part,  a  being  that 
thinks,  discerns,  wills.  Now,  originally,  the  harmony 
between  man's  body  and  soul  was  complete.  The 
body  was  the  efficient,  yet  subordinate,  handmaid 
of  the  soul  ;  the  soul  the  willing,  alacrious,  loving 
handmaid  of  God.  But  the  Fall  brought  about  a 
mournful  change.  The  body  became  the  seducer 
and  taskmaster  of  the  soul,  and  both  soul  and  body 
lost  their  glory.  Man's  carnal  nature,  in  fact, 
attained  the  supremacy.  So  completely  was  this 
the  case,  that  the  designation  which  the  Holy  One 
gave  to  the  fallen  race  of  man  was  Flesh.       The 

Lord  said.,  My  Spirit   shall  not   always 

strive  with  man,  for  that  he  also  is  Jlesh. 

.  .  .  God  looked  ttpon  the  earth,  and 
Gtu.\\.  12.  behold  it   was   corrupt.,  for  all  flesh  had 

corrupted  his  zmy  upon  the  eai'th.  Man 
no  longer  deserved  to  be  called  after  his  higher 
nature,  no  nor,  properly  speaking,  after  his  bodily 
nature,  but  only — flesh.  The  mere  stuff  of  the 
body,  its  material  substance,  was  a  sufficient,  was 
the  proper,  designation  for  man. 

And  this   humiliating  designation  is  not  only 
continued   in   the   New  Testament,   but    receives 


THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN. 

43 

there  peculiar  prominence  and  emphasis.     Man's 
body  is  called  the  body  of  thejlesh}     Man  Coi.  2.11. 
himself,  as  he  is  by  nature,  is  called  fleshly 

-^   Rom.  vii. 

{(jdpxv^uq   and    (Tapy.ixoq).^      He   is    said    to  H;  i  Cor. 
be    in    the  flesh    {Iv  Gapv.i)    and    after  the 
flesh    {y.azd  Gdpy,a).     His  mind  is  the  mind  Rom.  yii. 
of  the  flesh  {(ppovrum  rrjq  ffapxoq)  ;  his  will  the  Rom.  viii'. 
wt/lof  the  flesh  {oa-qixa);  his  thoughts  the  fohn,  1 1^, 

thoughts    of   the  flesh     (dm.ocac)  ;     his    de-  Gal  v"'i^6; 

sires    the   desires    of  the  flesh  (l-tOoiuat).  Jj^^^'  "* 
And   even  when  he  seems  to  be  acting 
contrary  to  the  flesh,  yea,  punishing  it,  he 
is  only,  says  the  Apostle,  vainly  puffed  tip  Coi.  ii.  18. 
by  the  miud  of  his  flesli  {yizd  zoo  vodq  rr^q 

aapxoq). 

Such  is  man's  state  by  nature:  the  flesh  Eph.  ii.  3. 
supreme,  and  soul  and  body  subordinate,  humihated, 
vitiated.     Could  anything   be  more  grievous .?     If 
you  were   possessed   of   a    costly    vase,    wrought 

1  The  reading  (Ju^iaToq  tt/c  aapKog,  instead  of  a.  ruv  dfiap- 
Tco)v  rriq  aapKoq^  is  given  by  Lachmann  and  Tischendorf,  and 
is  doubtless  the  right  one. 

2  The  former,  capKivoq^  is  the  milder  term,  and  indicates 
man's  natural  evil  state  ;  whereas  aapKCKog  indicates,  so  to 
speak,  his  personal  appropriation  of  this  state,  his  subordi- 
nation of  himself  to  '  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  his  members.' 


.  .  THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN. 

exquisitely  within  and  without,  and  if  by  some 
mishap  this  vase  were  to  be  defaced  by  fire,  you 
would  feel  keen  regret.  And  if,  in  addition,  a 
treasure  had  been  deposited  in  the  vase,  and  this 
treasure  had  become  so  tarnished  as  to  be  all  but 
worthless,  your  regret  would  be  keener  still.  But 
what  a  poor  representation  is  this  of  that  deface- 
ment and  ruin  which  have  taken  place  in  man! 
Phil.  iii.  -^^^  body  has  become  a  body  of  hitinilia- 
Rom  vi  tio7t^  yea  a  body  of  sin.  And  his  soul  has 
^-  become  darkened,  dazed,  disordered,    de- 

graded. The  living  Temple  of  the  living  God  has 
become  a  ruin,  and  unclean  birds  and  beasts  have 
taken  up  their  abode  therein.^ 

And  all  men  are  more  or  less  conscious  of  this, 
though  it  is   only  the  spiritual  man  who  is  fully 

1  See  the  noble  passage  in  Howe's  Living  Te^nple,  Pt.  ii. 
chap.  iv.  Only  part  of  it  can  here  be  quoted  :  "  The  state- 
ly ruins  are  visible  to  every  eye,  and  bear  in  their  front, 
yet  extant,  this  doleful  inscription:  j^ClKC  (DCDD  ©tlCC 
JDlDCil^.  Enough  appears  of  the  admirable  frame  and 
structure  of  the  soul  of  man  to  show  the  Divine  Presence  did 
sometime  reside  in  it,  more  than  enough  of  vicious  deform- 
ity to  proclaim  He  is  now  retired  and  gone.  The  lamps 
are  extinct,  the  altar  overturned,  the  light  and  love  van- 
ished". .  . 


THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN.  ^q 

conscious  of  it.^  It  is  only  the  spiritual  man  who 
can  understand  that  scripture,  /  am  carnal,  ^^^  ^.j 
sold  tinder  sm;  or  who,  with  proper  sig-  ^4- 
nificance,  can  use  the  other  scripture,  /  Rom.  vii. 
know  that  in  me,  that  is,  in  my  flesh,  good 
dwelleth  not.  Yet  others  also  are  conscious  of  a 
disturbance  and  derangement  within.  They  can 
see,  and  do  see,  that  their  lower  nature  has  the 
ascendant,  yet  ought  not  to  have  it  ;  that  the  flesh 
is  perpetually  gratified  at  the  expense,  and  to  the 
hurt,  of  the  soul.  And  not  only  so,  but,  occasionally 
at  least,  they  resent  the  body's  usurpation  and 
tyranny,^  and  long  for  deliverance.  They  long  to 
live  worthy  of  themselves,  of  their  higher  and 
nobler  nature.  Oh  no,,  man  is  not  so  fallen  that  he 
has  quite  forgotten  his  original,  that  he  has  lost  all 
sense  of  the  good,  the  beautiful,  and  the  divine. 
Even  the  most  abject  occasionally  cast  longing  eyes 


1  '  How  great  a  distance  parts  us  !  for  in  Thee 

Is  endless  good,  and  boundless  ill  in  me  : 
All  creatures  prove  me  abject,  but  how  low 
Thou  only  know'st,  and  teachest  me  to  know.' — 

Sir  John  Beaumont. 

2  '  This  body  that  does  me  grievous  wrong.' 

Coleridge,  Youth  and  Age. 


^5  THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN. 

towards  the  Mountains  of  Perfection.  And  ordinary 
men  do  this  more  than  occasionally.  They  realise 
keenly  and  sadly  what  is,  and  what  might  be — 
what  should  be.  They  can  enter,  and  warmly,  into 
those  words  of  the  poet : 

■*  Poor  soul,  the  centre  of  my  sinful  earth, 

Fool'd  by  those  rebel  powers  that  thee  array, 
Why- dost  thou  pine  within,  and  suffer  dearth, 

Painting  thy  outward  walls  so  costly  gay  ? 
Why  so  large  cost,  having  so  short  a  lease, 

Dost  thou  upon  thy  fading  mansion  spend  ? 
Shall  worms,  inheritors  of  this  excess. 

Eat  up  thy  charge  ?  is  this  thy  body's  end  ? 
Then,  soul,  live  thou  upon  thy  servant's  loss. 

And  let  that  pine  to  aggravate  thy  store  ; 
Buy  terms  divine  in  selling  hours  of  dross 

Within  be  fed,  without  be  rich  no  more  : 
So  shalt  thou  feed  on  death,  that  feeds  on  men, 
And,  d^ath  once  dead,  there's  no  more  dying  then.'^ 

Good  and  needful  advice  this  !  But  ah,  the  mind 
may  be  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak,  is  rebellious.- 
However  the  better  self  may  sigh,  and  grieve,  and 
aspire,  it  is  powerless  against  the  might  of  indwell- 


^  Shakspeare,  Sonnets,  cxlvi. 

2  TJj  jiiv  vol  C\ov7xviJ  vojiu)  Ocoi',  rij  Se  capKt  rSfiu  dfiapriar. 
(Rom.  vii.  25.)  This  antagonism  of  the  aop^  and  vovc  in  the 
natural  man  becomes  in  the  renewed  man  the  antagonism  of 
crdpf  <J-Ild  Tu  Hi'ev/ia. 


THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN.  .y 

ing  sin.      To    zvill  (ru    OiX£L,>)    is  present  with  me, 
but  how  to  perfo7in  that  which  is  good,     -^^^  ^,jj 
is  710 1.  .  .     I  see  a   different    law  in   my     ^^'  ^3- 
members,  warring  against  the  lazv  of  my  mind,  and 
bringing  me  into  captivity  to  the  lazv  of  sin  which 
is  in  my  member's} 

This  being  so,  it  is  obvious  that  if  any  one 
wishes  to  get  the  better  of  the  flesh,  to  escape  the 
degradation  and  misery  of  the  worst  of  bondage, 
he  must  get  a  help  extraneous  to  himself.  And 
that  help  can  be  but  one,  even  the  help  of  the 
Spirit  of  God.  By  that  Spirit  alone  can  anyone  be 
renewed  within" — in  his  soul's  soul — and  so  become 
master  of  himself,  and  successful  in  his  struggle  with 
self.  And  the  Spirit's  aid  is  refused  to  none  who 
sincerely  seek  it.      Nay,  every  baptised  person  has 


1  It  is  important  to  note  that  a/iapria  is  represented  as 
ruling  h  Tolg  iikXtat^  but  not  tv  to)  vol. — On  vovr^  '  der  geistige 
Seelensinn,'  see  Beck,  Umriss  der  Bibl.  Seelenlehre^  §  i8, 
etc.     (Ed.  3.) 

2  This  is  indicated  in  that  much  misunderstood  passage, 
Eph.  iv.  23  :  the  Holy  Spirit  acting  on,  and  with,  man's  spirit, 
renews  him  within,  so  that  his  naraior-qq  rov  vo6g  (v.  1 7)  becomes 
an  avaKaivoaig  rov  voog  (Rom.  xii.  2). 


.  g  THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN. 

a  direct  claim  upon  it,  as  well  as  direct  guarantee 
that  it  shall  be  fully  given.  But,  unhappily,  all  bap- 
tised persons  do  not  use  their  privilege.  Worse 
still,  numbers  of  them  *  resist '  the  Spirit,  '  grieve  ' 
See  Acts  Him,  and,  as  far  as  they  can,  *  quench ' 
^pj^^^iy  Him.  And  accordingly  they  are  left  to 
3°5  themselves.     The  difference  between  men 

I  1  hes.  V. 

'9-  in  the  visible  church  is  this :  some  have 

cherished  the  grace  given  unto  them,  and  some 
Gal.  ii.  21.  have  made  it  void.  Some  have  yielded 
themselves  tip  to  God,  as  alive  from  the  dead,  and 
Rom  vi  their  members  is  instruments  of  rigJiteons- 
^3-  ness  uiito  God ;  and  some  have  lived  unto 

I-.     *   '       themselves,   and  made  their  members    iii- 
om.  VI.       strume7tts  of  iijirighteonsness  iLnto  sin.    In 
Rom  viii.     short,  some  have  walked  after  the  Spirit, 
4  and  some  after  the  flesh.      And,  by  con- 

sequence, some  are  the  children  of  life,  and  some 
the  children  of  death.  For  the  mind  of 
Rom.  viii.  ^/^^  ji^sh  is  death,  bnt  the  mind  of  the 
Spirit  is  life  and  peace.  Because  the 
mind  of  the  flesh  is  enmity  agaijist  God, 
for  it  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God, 
neither   indeed  can  be ;   and  they  that  are  in   the 


THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN.  ^g 

Jlesh  cannot  please  God.  But  ye  are  not  in  thejlesk, 
but  in  the  Spirit,  if  so  be  that  the  Spirit  of  God 
dwell  in  you. 

And  the  vital  question,  therefore,  with  all  of  us 
is  :  How  are  we  walking  ?  in  other  words,  Whom 
are  we  serving  ?  Holy  Scripture  does  not  suffer  us 
to  lose  ourselves  in  generalities  about  sin.  It  asks 
us  plainly  :  What  is  sin  to  you  personally  ?  does  it 
rule  over  you,  or,  by  the  grace  of  God,  do  you  rule 
over  it  ?  And,  in  order  to  decide  this,  Scripture 
points  us  to  the  mortal  body  and  its  deeds.  Just 
as  at  the  last  day  we  shall  be  judged  for  2  Cor.  v. 
the  things  done  in  {through)  the  body,  so  ^^• 
now  we  are  to  judge  ourselves  by  the  same  things. 
For  they  will  enable  us  to  determine  whether  we 
have  Christ's  Spirit  or  not,  and  conse-  See  2  Cor. 
quently  whether  we  are  reprobates  or  not.   ^"^-  5- 

Let  us  not  then  think  lightly,  as  so  many  do,  of 
the  mortal  body.  Still  less  let  us  make  it  the  excuse 
for  sinning,  or  even  the  unavoidable  cause  of  sin. 
Many  have  done  this  last.  They  have  made  the 
body,  as  such,  the  source  and  originating  cause  of 
sin.  But  if  this  were  so,  if  sin  were  necessarily 
connected  with  our  physical  and  senuous  organisa- 

4 


^Q  THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN. 

tion/  three  things  would  follow  :  (i)  God  the  Creator 
would  be  the  real  Author  of  sin  ;  (2)  God  could  not 
summon  men,  who  cannot  separate  themselves  from 
Heb.  ii.  their  bodies,  to  put  away  sin ;  and  (3)  Jesus 
^4-  Christ,  who,  like  ourselves,  took  part  in 

flesh  and  blood,  would  have  had  sin.  But  no,  man's 
lower  nature  is  not,  as  such,  evil,  nor  the  source  of 
evil.  Even  those  outcomes  of  it  which  seem  most 
earthly  and  sensual  are  not  of  necessity  evil. 
*  Nature,'  says  TertuUian,  '  is  to  be  reverenced,  not 
blushed  at.'  ^  Yet  true  it  is  that  man's  lower  nature 
is  a  source  of  great  peril  to  him.  The  body's 
commonest  appetites  and  wants  may  become  per- 


1  We  are  much  in  want  of  a  word  to  express  man's  nature 
so  far  as  it  is  constituted  and  characterised  by  the  bodily 
senses.  The  word  '  sensationalism,'  which  Bp.  Ellicott  and 
others  have  tried  to  introduce,  will  not  maintain  itself  :  least 
of  all  now  that  the  adjective  '  sensational '  has  acquired  so 
definite  and  different  a  meaning. — Ernesti  has  written  a 
special  treatise  on  Die  Theorie  vojn  Urspriinge  der  Siinde 
aus  der  Sinnlichkeit  (Gott.  1862). 

2  '  Natura  veneranda  est,  non  erubescenda.'  (Tertul.  De 
Anima,  c.  xxvii.)  Yet  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  man's 
nature  is  no  longer  his  God-given  nature,  but  his  own  nature. 
Until  renewed  by  the  Spirit  of  his  viind  man's  kTziOvfiiai  are 
Idiai  eTTidvuiai^  that  is  to  say,  capKiKai  (i  Pet.  ii.  11)  and  KoojucKal 
.(Tit.  ii.  12). 


THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN.  ^  I 

verted  and  hurtful  and  shameful.     Even  hunger  and 
thirst  may  be  made,  and  constantly  are  made,  min- 
isters of  sin,  and  so  made  to  bring  forth    j^^^  ^.^ 
fruit  unto  death}  5- 

And  hence  holy  Scripture  is  continually  warn- 
ing us  to  be  on  our  guard  with  respect  to  the  body. 
If  it  does  not  bid  us  '  buffet  and  bruise '     ^ 

See  I  Cor. 

the  body,  it  bids  us  keep  it  in  strict  sub-    ix.  27. 
jection.     Let  not  sin  reign  in  your  mortal   l^om.  vi. 
body,  that  ye  should  obey  the  lusts  thereof.  .. 

.  .  .  Abstain  from  fleshly  lusts  which  war  n- 
against  the  soul.  .  .  .  Make  dead  your  Col.  iii.  5, 
members  which  are  up07t  the  earth.  And 
yet,  on  the  other  hand,  Scripture  is  equally  careful 
to  remind  us  of  the  body's  dignity,  and  of  the  solemn 
duties  we  owe  to  it.  The  body  is  not,  as  some  have 
held,  the  mere  shell  of  the  soul ;  still  less  is  it  the 
tomb  of  the  soul ;  ^  nor  even,  rightly  considered,  the 


1  'Q.V  6  debg  t}   KoiXia  (Phil.  iii.  1 9). 

2  Ka'i  yap  a^fid  Ttvig  (paaiv  [to  Gcbfio]  elvai  ttjq  ipvxvc^  "?  reda/u,- 
fievTjg  kv  Tu  vvv  izapdvTi. — Plat.  Crat.  p.  400  C.  Cf.  Gorg.  p.  493 
A. — In   Shakspeare    {King  Richard  II.,   Act  iii.  Sc.  2) — 

'  As  if  this  flesh,  which  walls  about  our  life, 
Were  brass  impregnable'— 

the  reference  is  not  to  a  tomb  but  to  a  castle. 


^2  THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN. 

prison  of  the  soul.^  But  the  body  is  the  soul's 
co-ordinated  associate  and  helpmate.  How  the  two 
are  united,  no  human  being  can  explain.  But  cer- 
tain it  is  that  neither  of  them  is  independent  of  the 
other,  nor  complete  without  the  other.  The  soul, 
no  doubt,  is  the  nobler,  because  immaterial ;  but  the 
body  is  very  noble  also.  And  to  speak  disparagingly 
of  the  body,  is  to  speak  unchristianly,  as  well  as 
unphilosophically.^  No  one  who  properly  meditates 
on  his  own  existence  will  identify  himself  with  the 
soul  rather  than  with  the  body,  but  will  recognise 


1  '  Si  enim  corpus  istud  Platonica  sententia  career,  ceterum 
Apostolica  Dei  templum,  cum  in  Christo  est '  .  .  .  (Tertul. 
Ve  Animd,C2.p.  liii.) — The  representation  of  the  body  as  a 
'  garment'  to  the  soul  is  scriptural :  see  Ps.  xxxix.  ii.  Yet  it 
is  not  correct  to  speak  of  this  garment  being  '  borrowed  '  by 
the  soul  :  e.  g.  Charron,  De  la  Sagesse,  L.  iii.  ch.  xxii.  §  4  : 
'  Ce  corps  n'est  qu'  vne  robe  empruntee  pour  en  faire 
paroistre  pour  vn  temps  nostre  esprit  sur  ce  has  et  tumul- 
tuaire  theatre.'  The  soul  is  as  much  lent  to  the  body  as  the 
body  to  the  soul. — The  wrong  apprehension  of  the  relation- 
ship of  body  and  soul  has  been  the  cause,  among  other 
things,  why  descriptions  of  death,  even  in  Christian  writers, 
are  so  seldom  scriptural. 

2<  Quod  nonnulli  dicunt,  malle  se  omnino  esse  sine  corpore, 
omnino  falluntur.  Non  enim  corpus  suum,  sed  corruptiones 
ejus  et  pondus,  oderunt.'— Aug.  DeDoctr.  Christ,  i.  24. 


THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN.  -^ 

himself  as  constituted  by  the  two/  Yes,  and  no 
man,  however  spiritual,  ever  comes  to  feel  himself 
independent  of  the  body,  and  so  to  speak,  beyond 
the  body.  Even  when  through  disease  the  body  has 
become  a  hopeless  wreck,  a  burden  and  torment,  it 
is  never,  even  in  thought,  dissociated  from  the  true 
Self.  A  good  man  may  feel — he  generally  does — 
that  he  '  owes  God  a  death ; '  ^  h'e  may  also  feel 
that  his  earthly  tabernacle  has  become  so  2  Cor.  v.  i. 
tainted  by  leprosy,  that  it  can  only  be  fully  cleansed 
by  being  taken  down  :  ^  yet  even  then,  the  inner- 
most desire  is  not  to  be  unclothed  but 
clothed  upon,  that  what  is  mortal  may  be  "  '^'  '^' 
swallowed  up  of  life. 

Let  us  then  be  very  reverential  to  the  body ; 
and  very  solicitous  how  we  treat  the  body.  It  is 
no  sign  of  spirituality,  but  the  reverse,  to  pretend 

1  .  .  '  Ich  :  denn  dabei  denken  wir  immer  an  die  Identi- 
tat  von  Leib  und  Seele,  und  heben  den  Gegensatz  auf  .  .  .  Ich 
stellt  sich  weder  auf  die  eine  noch  auf  die  andere  Seite,  son- 
dern  ist  das  Zusammenfassende  von  beiden,'  Schleiermacher, 
Psych. '^.  8. 

2  See  Izaak  Walton's  account  of  Hooker's  death-bed. 

3  '  This  leprosy  hath  taken  so  deep  root  in  the  walls  of  this 
house  that  it  cannot  perfectly  be  cleansed  till  it  be  taken 
down.'     Abp.  Leighton,  Works,  vol  iii.  p.  202  (Ed.  Pearson). 


c^  THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN. 

to  scorn  the  body.^     And  no  one  in  sincerity  does 

Eph.  V      ^^'     ^^  wan,  says  the  Apostle,  ever  hated 

^9-  his  ownJiesJi,  biU  nourisheth  it  a7id  cherish- 

eth  it.     And  no  man  is  called  upon  to  hate  his  own 

flesh,  save  only  in  the  sense  in  which  he  is  called 

See  John  ^P<^^  ^^  ^^'^^^  ^^^^  ^"^^^  soiil.  The  Gospel 
xii.  25,  etc.  ^^^gj^jf^gg  the   body.      It   tells   us   indeed 

what,  owing  to  sin,  the  body  empirically  is,  but  it 
tells  us  also  what,  through  grace,  the  body  may  be- 
2  Cor.  vi.  I.  come,  and  will  become,  unless  g7'ace  is 
received  i7t  vain.  And  the  Gospel  solemnly  calls 
upon  us  to  s^lorify  God  in  onr  body  :  to 

I  Cor.  VI.  o        ^^ 

20.  present  onr  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy, 

Rom.  xii.  o  j  ^ 

I.  well  pleasing  ttnto  God.     For  this,  it  as- 

sures us,  is  our  rational  service.  Rational  indeed,  and 
blessed  indeed !  Whosoever  offers  unto  God  this 
sacrifice  receives  an  unspeakable  reward.  He  re- 
ceives not  only  an  earnest  of  his  acceptance,  but  an 
earnest  of  his  renovation.  If  the  Spirit  of  Him 
Rom.  viii.  ^^^^^  raised  Up  yes7is  from  the  dead  dzvell 
"•  in  yojiy  He  that  raised  up  Chiistfrom  the 


^  Almost  all  the  early  Gnostics  vilified  the  body.  The 
Priscillianists  also,  in  the  fourth  century,  held  the  body  to  be 
the  work  of  the  Author  of  evil. 


THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN.  cc 

dead  shall  quicken  even  your  mortal  bodies  by  reason 
of  His  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you.  These  words 
point  to  something  more  than  the  future  glorification 
of  the  body.  They  point  to  a  present  vivifying 
process  which  the  Holy  Spirit  carries  on  in  the 
bodies  of  the  faithful.^  And  they  are  not  the  only 
words  in  the  New  Testament  that  do  so.  The  New 
Testament  plainly  intimates  that  even  on  earth 
Christ's  Spirit  does  great  things  for  the  body  of  the 
believer.^  It  even  speaks  of  the  life  of  2  cor  iv 
yesus  being  made  manifest,  not  in  his  body  ^°'  "• 
merely,  but  in  his  mortal  flesh.  What  this  fully 
means,  we  know  not ;  perhaps,  in  our  present  state, 

1  Calvin,  in  his  comment  on  the  words,  says :  '  Non  de- 
ultima  resurrectione,  quae  momento  fiet  [habetur  sermo],  sep 
de  continua  Spiritus  operatione,  qua  rehquias  carnis  paulatim 
mortificans,  caelestem  vitam  in  nobis  instaurat.' — De  Wette 
(quoted  by  Olshausen)  says  :  '  Es  ist  hier  von  einem  innern 
leibleich-geistigen  Process  die  Rede,  nicht  von  einem  von 
aussen  kommenden  Ereigniss,  wie  man  die  Auferstehung 
gewohnlich  auffasst' — Olshausen's  own  comment  is  :  '  Unsere 
Stelle  hat  ihren  Commentar  in  Joh.  vi.,  wo  Christus  als  die 
Cw^  nach  alien  Beziehungen  hin  Sich  darstellt,  auch  der 
Leiblichkeit.' 

2  ^0  Xpiarbg  KecpaX?)  TTJg  EKKlrjaicQ^  avrbg  <TCJT'f)p  tov  aufiarog 
(Eph.  v.  23.)  MeXtj  kafiev  tov  cu/tiarog  avrov,  ek  TTJg  capKoq  aiirov 
Kal  EK  Tcjv  oGTEuv  uvTov.  (Eph.  V.  30.)  Cf.  Clcm.  A\tx.  Pcsdttg. 
ii.:  0  li^iiEvog  tjixo)V  koX  oufia  Kal  il>vxr/v. 


56  THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN, 

cannot  know.  It  may  be  one  of  those  things 
Heb.  vi.  which  necessarily  remain  hidden  till  we 
^9-  enter  within  the  veil.     But  whatever  it 

means,  our  duty  and  wisdom  are  plain :  viz.,  to 
glorify  God  in  our  body,  and  by  the  Spirit  to  mor- 
tify our  corrupt  affections.  For,  if  we  do  this,  we 
Rom.viii.  13.]  are  assured  that  we  shall  live.  If,  hy  the 
Spirit,  ye  mortify  the  deeds  of  the  body,  ye  shall  live  : 
live  now  and  live  for  ever.  Already  on  earth  we 
share  in  our  Master's  life,  and  that  probably  in 
Col.  iii.  4.]  more  than  a  spiritual  sense  ;  and  when 
Christ,  who  is  (^His  people  s)  life,  shall  be  manifested, 
then  shall  we  also  be  manifested  with  Him  in  glory. 
Our  hidden  life  shall  be  fully  seen.  All  that  Christ 
has  done  for  our  souls  and  bodies  shall  be  made 
Comp.  2      manifest,  and  shall  be  the  admiration  of 

Thes.  i.  7, 

10.  samts  and  angels. 

To  like  purpose  are  the  words  of  S.  John. 
J  ^^^^  ...  Beloved,  now  are  zue  the  children  of  God, 
-•  redeemed,  regenerate  men,  and  it  is  not 

yet  manifested  zvJiat  we  shall  be,  but  zue  knozu  that, 
wJien  it  shall  be  manifested,  we  shall  be  like  Him, 
for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is:  see  Him  in  His  own 
transcendent  glory,  and  find  ourselves  to  our  ador- 


THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN.  c-j 

ing  joy  partakers  thereof.^  But,  after  stating  this, 
St.  John  is  careful  to  add,  every  man  that  v.  3. 
hath  this  hope  in  Hint,  picrifieth  Jiii^tself,  even  as  He 
is  pure.  And  what  is  this  but  to  repeat  to  us  what 
we  have  ahxady  heard  ?  What  is  it  but  to  reaffirm 
the  indefeasible  connection  between  sonship  and 
saintship  ?  *  Think  not ' — we  are  warned  in  effect 
— '  that  ye  can  belong  to  God,  and  yet  live  after  the 
flesh  :  no,  if  ye  live  after  the  flesh  ye  imtst  Ro"^-  ^iii- 
die :   and  what  has  God  to  do  with  death  ?   ^^^  Matth. 

xxii.  32. 

Think   not  that  ye  can  belong  to  Christ 
without  having  the  Spirit  of  Christ :  no,  if  Rom.  viii. 
any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he    ^' 
is  none  of  His.     Think  not  that  ye  can 
have  Christ's  spirit,  and  yet  remain  the  bondmen 
of  sin  :  no,  where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,     ^  ^-^j.  j-^^ 
there  is  liberty.     Think  not  that  ye  can  be     ^7- 
glorified  hereafter  without  being  sanctified  and  'made 
meet '  now:  not  so!  withottt  holiness  no  man     Heb.  xii. 
shall  see  the  Lord ;  tJiere  shall  i7t  no  wise     J^g^_  ^xi. 
enter  into  {the  heavenly  city)  anything  that     ^7- 
defileth,  or  that  worketh  abomination  orfalseJiood! 
Let  us  then  lay  this  to  heart.      Let  us  keep 

1  .   ,  .  Iva  Kal  avv6o^aado)i^ev  (Rom.  viii.  1 7), 


5  8  '^HE  ORGAN  OF  SIN, 

^  .  .  firm  hold  of  the  immutable  truth  :  whatso- 
\jz.u  VI.  7- 

ever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap ; 
he  that  soweth  to  his  own  Jlesh  shall  of  the  flesh 
reap  corruption,  but  he  that  soweth  to  the  Spirit 
shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life  eve^dasting.  And  if 
Tit.iii.  3.  any  one,  unhappily,  is  sowing  to  his 
Roni/i.  '  flesh  ;  is  serving  divers  lusts  and  pleas- 
^■5"  ures ;  is  walking  according  to  the  course 

of  this  world  ;  is  worshipping  and  serving  the  C7ra- 
ture  rather  tJian  the  Creator ;  let  him  seriously  pon- 
der what  the  Scripture  says  of  his  state  and  pros- 
pects. He  is  an  outcast  from  life,  and  he  is  an  heir 
of  death.  Already  death  *  worketh  '  in  him  ;  and  this 
death,  unless  removed,  shall  be  more  and  more  devel- 
oped and  intensified,  until  it  issues  in  the  ivorvi  that 
Mark  ix.  48.  dietJi  iiot  and  the  fire  that  is  not  quencJied} 
Up  !  then,  thou  that  steepest,  and  arise  from  the  deady 
Eph.  V.  14.  and  Christ  shall  illumine  thee.  Cry  earnest- 


'  Prayers  there  are  idle,  death  is  woo'd  in  vain  ; 
In  midst  of  death  poor  wretches  long  to  die; 
Night  without  day  or  rest,  still  doubling  pain  ; 

Woes  spending  still,  yet  still  their  end  less  nigh ; 
The  soul  there  restless,  helpless,  hopeless  lies  : 
There's  life  that  never  lives,  there's  death  that  never  dies,' 
P.  Fletcher,  Purple  Island,  vi.  37. 


THE  ORGAN  OF  SIN.  ^9 

ly  for  the  Spirit's  aid,  that  thou  mayst  be  delivered 


Vlll. 


from  the    bondage  of  corruption  into  the    ^^^ 

liberty  of  the  glory  of  the  children  of  God. 

And  whosoever,  by  God's  grace,  has  attained  to 

this    liberty,    has    renounced    the  hidden  2  Cor.  iv. 

things  of  shame  and  the  tmfruitful  works  Eph.  v.  n. 

.  .  Eph.  V.  15. 

of  darkness,  let  him  walk  with  strictness,  Rom.  xiii. 

as  one  who  is  wise.      Let   him   make  no 

provision  for  the  flesh  tmto  the  lusts  thereof.  Let  him 

hate  even  the  garment  spotted  by  the  flesh. 

Let   him  mortify  that  self-will  which  is 

the  cause  of  so  much  failure  and  sorrow,  and  set 

himself  to  discern  what  is  that  good,  and    ^^^  ^jj^ 

well-pleasing,   and  perfect   will  of  God.     -• 

In  short,  the  life  which  he  now  lives  in  the  Gal.  ii.  20. 

flesh,  let  him  live  in  the  faith  of  the  Son 

of  God,  who  loved  him,  and  gave  Himself  for  him. 

This  if  he  do,  his  Saviour  shall  more  and  more 
own,  more  and  more  honour  him.  He  shall  in- 
creasingly know  the  greatness  and  blessedness  of 

his  inheritance.     And,  beholding  with  tm-    2  Cor.  iii. 

18. 
veiled  face  in  a  mirror  the  glory  of  the 

Lord,  he  shall  be  transformed  into  the  same  image 

from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  by  the  Lord  the  Spirit. 


LECTURE  IV. 

THE  CONSEQUENTS   OF  SIN, 


HoM. //.  V.  178. 


Culpam  poena  premit  comes. 

HoRAT.  Carm.  iv.  5.  24. 


Here  men  may  see  how  sinne  hath  his  merite  : 

Beth  ware  !  for  no  man  wot  whom  God  wol  smite 

In  no  degree,  ne  in  which  maner  wise 

The  worme  of  conscience  may  agrise 

Of  wicked  lif  .  .  . 

Therfore  I  rede  you  this  conseil  take  : 

Forsaketh  sinne,  or  sinne  you  forsake. 

Chaucer,  The  Doctoures  Tale,  end. 


THE  CONSEQUENTS  OF  SIN. 

Wit  mt  ronsnmeb  bg   C^ine  nn^tx,   mxb  bg   ST^g  foratl^ 
art  ioz  txouhlzH, — Ps.  xc.  7. 

The  consequents  of  sin  are  guilt  and  punishment. 
Guilt  is  the  dark  shadow  which  sin — all  sin — throws  ; 
and  the  blighting  effects  of  this  shadow — the  bane 
it  causes  and  the  reaction  it  calls  forth — is  the 
punishment  of  sin. 

I.  Guilt.  I 

If  a  sotil  sin,  and  commit  any  of  these  l^^  ^ 
things  which  are  forbidden  to  be  done  by  the  ^'''  ^^ 
commandmejit  of  the  Loi'd,  though  he  wist  it  not,  yet 
is  he  guilty,  and  shall  bear  his  iniquity:  ....  Jie 
hath  certainly  trespassed  against  the  Lord. 


^  Guilt  is  most  probably  derived  from  the  A.  S.  gildan,  to 
pay,  to  requite,  to  return  an  equivalent  :  guilt  =  that  which 
must  be  paid  for,  made  good,  atoned  for. 


54  THE  CONSEQUENTS  OF  SIN. 

Guilt  then  may  exist  without  the  consciousness 
of  guilt.^  And  guilt  always  exists  where  sin  exists : 
the  two  can  no  more  be  separated  than  the  shadow 
and  the  substance.  When  a  man  breaks  God's  law, 
Jam.  ii.  9.  he  is  convicted  by  the  law  as  a  transgres- 
soi'p-  He  himself  may  not  be  conscious  of  his  guilt, 
Lev.  V.  19.  or  of  the  offence  that  caused  it,  but  he  hath 
certainly  trespassed  against  the  Lord.  He  has  vio- 
lated Eternal  Law,  and  he  must  take  the  con- 
sequences. 

Now  guilt  has  two  aspects  :  one  turned  to  the 
sin  committed,  the  other  to  the  penalty  incurred.^ 
A  guilty  person,  in  the  first  place,  has  the  imputa- 
tion and  appropriation  of  the  deed  done  ;  it  becomes 


1  It  is  remarkable  how  many  writers  make  guilt  to  be  con- 
ditioned by  the  consciousness  of  guilt.  Nitzsch,  for  instance, 
defines  guilt  to  be  '  die  bewusste  Yerhaftung  unsers  Lebens 
unter  das  Genugthuung  fordernde  Gesetz  : '  Systan  der 
Christ.  Lehre,  p.  249  (Ed.  6).  The  Jews  crucified  Christ 
Kara  ayvotnv  (Acts  iii.  1 7) ;  had  the  Jews  then  no  guilt  ? 

2  And  hence  is  v-6SiKnr  -u  Oefj  (Rom,  iii.  19). 

3  The  German  word  Schuld  gives  at  once  the  double  aspect 
of  guilt  :  I.  schuldig  an  etwas  (retrospective)  ;  2.  schuldig 
z?t  etwas  (prospective). — The  expression  in  our  English  Bible 
'  guilty  of  death  '  seems  at  first  sight  idiomatic  ;  but  it  was 
taken  from  Wiclifs  version,  and  is  only  a  translation  of  the 
Vulgate  '  reus  mortis.' 


THE  CONSEQUENTS  OF  SIN  5^ 

his  with  all  its  pollution  and  degradation.^  A  guilty 
person,  in  the  second  place,  is  under  an  obligation  to 
suffer  the  just  penalty  attached  to  his  sin  ;  he  is  '  in 
danger  of '  and  obnoxious  to  (Ivoyoc)  condign  pun- 
ishment.' ^  The  guilt  incurred  may  be  greater  or 
less  :  but  all  guilt  involves  personal  defilement,^  and 
all  guilt  exposes  to  punishment.^     An  offender  not 


1  It  is  important  to  emphasise  the  personal  nature  of  guilt. 
Nothing  could  be  more  unscriptural  than  (e.g.)  the  representa- 
tion in  Goethe's  well-known  lines  in  Wilhehn  Meisier,  where, 
addressing  the  heavenly  Powers,  he  says — 

*  Ihr  fiihrt  in's  Leben  uns  hinein 

Ihr  lasst  den  Armen  schuldig  werden, 
Dann  iiberlasst  ihr  ihn  der  Pein  : 
Denn  alle  Schuld  racht  sich  auf  Erden.' 

Guilt,  questionless,  avenges  itself,  at  least  to  some  extent* 
even  here  on  earth,  but  this  guilt  is  of  man's  own  causing  : 
6  Qeoq  aireipaGToq  hoTL  Kaicuv,  Treipd^et  6e  avrbc  ovdeva  (Jam.  i.  1 3). 
Even  a  heathen  could  teach  :  alria  eTio/nevov,  Qedc  avalriog. 

2  See  Bp.  Pearson's  comprehensive  Note  on  evo^og  {Creed^ 
Art.  X.  p.  362). 

^  This  is  what  the  Schoolmen  call  the  '  macula,'  and  our 
own  early  divines  the  *  blot '  or  '  spot '  or  '  stain  '  of  sin  :  see 
Hooker,  EccL  Pol  Bk.  VI.  ch.  vi.  8.  But,  as  Bp.  Jeremy 
Taylor  has  pointed  out  {Works,  no\.  iv.  p.  247  f.,  Ed.  Eden), 
the  Schoolmen  are  ver}'  indefinite  in  their  use  of  '  macula.' 

*  The  distinction  between  '  reatus  culpse '  and  '  reatus 
poenae '  is  well  given  by  Hollaz  (quoted  by  Hase,  Hutterus 
Redivivtis,  §  82) :  '  Reatus  culpae  est  obligatio  qua  homo, 
propter  actum  legi  morah  difformem,  sub  macula  quasi  con- 

5 


56  THE  CONSEQUENTS  OF  SIN, 

only  forfeits  innocence  with  all  its  blessings,  but  he 
brings  himself  ujider  a  curse.  And  the  effects  of 
See  Gal.  ^^^'^  curse  he  must  bear.  He  has  meshed 
111.  lo,  13.  hijYiself  with  terrible  consequences,  and, 
unless  the  mercy  of  Omnipotence  release  him,  he 
Prov  V.  niust  for  ever  remain  Jioldcu  with  the 
^^'  cords  of  his  sin-    For  he  has  wronged  and 

insulted  God,  and  he  owes  satisfaction  to  God's  jus- 
tice and  holiness.^  And  such  satisfaction  God  never 
fails  to  exact.     And  the  exacting  of  it  constitutes 

II.  The  punishment  of  sin. 

When  a  man  sins  he  promises  himself  an  aug- 
mentation of  life  ;  ^  but  the  result  is  a  diminution 

strictiis  tenetur,  ut  ab  illoactu  peccatordetestabilis  censeatur 
Reatus  poense  est  obligatio  qua  peccatora  Deo,  judice  irato, 
obstrictus  tenetur  ad  sustinendam  vindictam  culpae  non 
remissae.' — In  the  marginal  notes  to  Part  II.  of  Baxter's 
Catholick  Theologie  (London,  1675)  are  many  discriminating 
remarks  on  the  confused  use  by  Romanist  writers  of  '  reatus 
culpae  '  and  'reatus  pcenas.' 

1  Hence  h^tD^i  (Luke  vii.  41  ;  xvi.  5  ff .)  ;  o^tLkhrjq  (Matth. 
xviii.  24;  Luke  xiii.  4)  ;  o^>aA?/ ^Matth.  xviii.  'i^i)-^  o^tL7J]iiaTa 
(Matth.  vi.  12). 

2  It  is  assumed  that  the  maxim  is  true  :  voluntas  in  nihil 
potest  tendere  nisi  sub  ratione  boni.'  This  is  not  the  place 
to  discuss  the  maxim. 


THE  CONSEQUENTS  OF  SIN  ^^ 

and  deadening  of  life.  For  God  blasts  all  life  that 
is  sought  out  of  Himself.  God  chases  sin  with 
His  vengeance  through  the  universe/  so  that  what- 
ever momentary  or  temporal  advantages  it  may  yield, 
its  sure  end  is  destruction  and  misery P"  It  ^^^  jjj 
is  true  indeed  that  God's  'goodness/  no  less  ^J  ^om 
than  His  '  severity,'  is  conspicuous  in  His  ^^-  22. 
treatment  of  sin.  For  by  the  punishment  of  sin  (i) 
God  seeks  to  deter  men  from  sin,  that  is  from  their 
own  ruin.  By  the  punishment  of  sin  (2)  God  brings 
home  to  men  the  heinousness  of  sin,  [jer.  ii.  19. 
makes  them  knoiv  and  see  that  it  is  an  evil  thing 
and  bitter  to  forsake  the  Lord  their  God.  And  by 
the  punishment  of  sin  (3)  God,  in  the  case  of  his  own 
penitent  people,  augments  life  :  He  -drawls  them 
closer  to  Himself,  and  blessetJi  tJieir  latter  jq^^  ^j-^ 
end  more  than  the  beginning.     But  though  ^^^ 

this  is  so,  though  God's  mercy  is  thus  signally  dis- 
played in  bringing   good  out  of  evil,  we  must  not 

1  His  enei7iies  He  pursiieth  with  darkness.     (Nahum  i.  8). 
2  <■  For  whoso  maketh  God  his  adversary, 
As  for  to  werken  any  thing  in  contrary 
Of  His  will,  certes  never  shall  he  thrive, 
Though  that  he  multiply  term  of  his  live.' 

Chaucer,  The  Chan.  Yem.  Tale,  end. 


5S  THE  CONSEQUENTS  OF  SIN 

lose  sight  of  the  great  primary  fact  that  God  really 
Rom.  i.  i8.]  and  fearfully  punishes  sin.^  The  wrath  of 
God  is  revealed  from  heaven  against  all  imgodliness 
and  tinrigJiteoits7iess  of  me7i.  God,  it  is  true,  is 
merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering,  and  abunda7it 
Exod  ^^^  goodness  and  triUh,  but  God  is  also  all- 

xxxiv.  6,  7.  j^Qjy  ^^^  all-just;  Hq  zvill  by  no  means 
clear  the  guilty.  God  suffers  no  violation  of  His  law 
to  pass  unpunished.^  And  the  punishment  begins 
Eph.  V.  6.]  instantaneously  with  the  offence.^  The  wrath 
of  God  Cometh  instantly  ^if/^;/  the  sons  of  disobedience, 
John  iii.  ^^^  ^^  \oxig  as  they  are  impenitent,it  abideth 
3^-  071  them,  troubling  them  and  undoing  them. 

They  may  not  recognize  this  wrath,  nor  even  for  a 
while  be  conscious  of  its  effects,  but  it  is  surely  and 
fatally  operative.  The  worm  has  begun  to  gnaw,  the 

1  '  Le  mal  ne  serait  point  mal  s'il  n'engendrait  le  malheur ; 
et  en  livrant  le  pdchd  au  malheur  Dieu  ne  fait  que  rendre  un 
objet  k  sa  nature,  le  marquer  de  son  vrai  sceau,  et  dire  que 
le  mal  est  7nal.^ — Vinet,  Nouveaux  Discoiirs,  p.  60. 

2  TC>  [9c(p]  ael  ^vvETrerai  dUrj  rcov  aTroXei-ofiivuv  rov  Oetov  v6juov 
Ttficjpdg. — Plat.  De  Legg.  iv.  716  A. 

8  On  John  xv.  6,  Hengstenberg  says  :  '  Die  beiden  Aoriste 
kfilfjdT]  und  f f^^pnv^'?  weisen  nachdriicklich  warnend  darauf  hin, 
dass  mit  der  Schuld  unmittelbar  auch  die  Strafe  gegeben 
ist  .  .  .  Die  das  Gesetz  Gottes  brechende  Seele  its  mit  dem 


THE  CONSEQUENTS  OF  SIN.  ^g 

cancer  to  spread,  the  fire  to  burn,  and  in  due  time  the 
full  result  shall  be  seen.  Is  not  this  laid  -^^^^ 
up  iji  store  with  Me,  and  sealed  up  ^^^^^'  34'  35- 
among  My  treasures'^  To  me  belongeth  vejigeance 
and  recompense ;  their  foot  shall  slide  in  due  time; 
for  the  day  of  their  calamity  is  at  hand,  and  the 
things  that  shall  come  upon  them  make  haste. 

And  the  effects  of  God's  wrath,  so  far  as  the 
sinner  is  concerned,  are  summed  up  in  one  word, 
Death.      The  wages  of  sin  is  death.     The    ^ 

^        -^  Rom.  23. 

soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die.     Sin,  when  it    Ezek. 

xviii.     4. 

is  finished,  bringeth  forth  death.  As  life  Jam.  i.  15. 
and  good  are  inseparably  connected,  so  also  are 
death  and  evil.^  Whosoever  commits  evil  cuts  him- 
self off  from  the  source  of  life.  He  poisons  his  own 
existence.  He  allies  himself  with,  and  subjects 
himself  unto,  the  Powers  of  destruction.  What 
those  powers  are,  and  how  they  operate,  is  only 
dimly  revealed  to  us.  The  realm  of  death  is  a 
realm  which  mortal  eye  may  not  survey.  God 
alone  can  search  it  out.     And  God  has   job  xxviii.  3. 


Momente    des     Brechens    selbst  schon  ausgerottet.' — Das 
Evang.  Joh.  vol.  iii.  p.  83. 
iSee  Deut.  xxx.  15,  19. 


yo  THE  CONSEQUENTS  OF  SIN 

seen  fit  to  tell  us  little  concerning  it.  Holy 
Scripture,  even  when  speaking  most  plainly  on  the 
subject,  seems,  as  it  were,  to  hold  back,  to  shadow 
forth  rather  than  to  declare.  Yet  this  at  least  we 
I  Cor.  15,  know,  that  the  death  of  which  sin  is  '  the 
56-  sting,'   and  which  punishes  sin,  is  a  death 

which  undoes  both  body  and  soul,  a  death  which  dis- 
integrates more  and  more  in  man  all  that  is  good 
and  god-like,  and  which  accumulates  instead  all  that 
is  hateful  and  destructive  ;  and  a  death  that  con- 
summates itself  in  irretrievable  loss  and  ruin  and 
woe — in  the  second  death.^ 

Ought  we  not  then  greatly  to  fear  sin,  and  Xojlee 


1  The  designations  of  the  Second  Death  are  :  <pdopa  (Gal. 
vi.  8)  •,  bledpoq  (i  Tim.  vi.  9 ;  2  Thess.  1.  9) ;  anuXeia  (Matth. 
vii.  13;  John  xvii.  12;  Rom.  ix.  22;  Phil.  i.  28;  iii.  19;  i 
Tim.  vi.  9;  Heb.  x.  39 ;  2  Pet.  ii.  3  ;  iii.  7), 

Tu  intrare  me  non  sinas 
Infernales  officinas  ! 
Ubi  probra  deteguntur, 
Ubi  rei  confunduntur, 
Ubi  tortor  semper  caedens, 
Ubi  vermis  semper  edens, 
Ubi  totum  hoc  perenne, 
Quia  perpes  mors  gehennze. 

Hildebertus  (f  1134). 


THE  CONSEQUENTS  OF  SIN.  /I 

from  it  as  from  the  face  of  a  serpent  ?    If  other  con- 
siderations do  not  move  us,  the  thought   e^cIus. 
of  our  own  welfare,  temporal  and  eternal,   ^^"  ^' 
should  do  so.     For  what  more  paralysing  than  guilt  ? 
What  more  certain  or  more   real  than  the  punish- 
ment of  sin  ?     It  is  not  revelation   only  which  tells 
us   of  these  things :  though  indeed  revelation  tells 
us  most  plainly,  and  tells  us  some  things  we  could 
not  otherwise  know.     But  experience  also  cries  out 
to  us.     Be  sitre  your  sin  will  find  you    Num.  xxxii. 
out !      Experience   appropriates  and  em-  ^^' 
phasises  the  words  of  Scripture,   What  f nut  had  ye 
then  when  ye  served  sin  }   Things  whereof     ^^^  ^j 
ye  are  ashamed.    For  the  end  of  those  things      ^^' 
is  death. 

Therefore  let  us  be  advised.  Let  us  give  heed 
to  that  Heavenly  Wisdom  which  so  variously  in- 
forms, so  lovingly  appeals  to  us.  Hearken  p^.^^  ^.j. 
tmto  Me,  O  ye  children,  for  blessed  are  they  Z~-Z^' 
that  keep  my  ways.  .  .  .  For  whoso  findeth  Me  find- 
eth  life,  and  shall  obtain  favour  of  the  Lord.  Btct 
he  that  sinneth  against  Me  wrongeth  his  own  soul : 
all  they  that  hate  me  love  Death. 

But  if  we  refuse  to  hearken  and  to  obey,  we  shall 


«2  THE  CONSEQUENTS  OF  SIN 

p       .  be  left  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  our  own  way 

and  to  be  filled  with  onr  own  devices.  A 
terrible  heritage  shall  accrue  to  us.  Even  in  this  life 
Prov.  xiii  we  shall  be  made  to  know  that  tJie  zuay  of 
transgressors  is  hard  and  ignominious. 
The  mask  shall  fall  from  the  face  of  Sin,  and  we 
shall  see  its  hideous,  revolting  visage  :  a  visage 
that  shall  haunt  and  threaten  us  whithersoever  we 
go.  And  in  bitterness  of  soul  we  shall  lament  too 
late  that  we  have  flung  away  our  own  mercies,  and 
ruined  our  own  joy — 

'  renown  and  grace  is  dead, 
The  wine  of  life  is  drawn,  and  the  mere  lees 
Is  left  this  vault  to  brag  of.'  ^ 


1  Shaks.  Macbeth,  Act  ii.  sc.  1. 


LECTURE  V. 

THE   DISCLOSURE   OF  SIN. 


Non  turn  denique  incipit  Lex  esse  cum  scripta  est,  sed 
turn  cum  orta  est :  orta  autem  simul  est  cum  Mente  Divina. 

Cic.  De  Legg.  ii.  4.    - 


Heaven's  early  care  prescrib'd  for  every  age, 
First  in  the  soul,  and  after  in  the  page. 

Dryden,  Religio  Laid. 


THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN. 

^g  llj^  lafa  u  llj^  Imotoljebg^  oi  mx. — Rom.  iii.  20. 

It  has  been  said  that  before  the  Fall  man  had  no 
conscience/  It  would  be  truer  to  say  that  before 
the  Fall  man  was  all  conscience.  For  then  the  light 
that  was  in  him  was  all  light ;  his  will  was  Matth.  vi. 
completely  in  harmony  with  God's  will ;  ~^' 
his  loving  intercourse  with  God  was  uninterrupted 
and  unclouded.  But  when  he  was  deter-  ^^^^  jjj 
mined  to  kiiozv good  and  evil,  when,  turning  5'  6. 
away  from  God,  he  sought  to  be  his  own  God,  all 
was  changed.  His  conscience,  which  had  Acts  xxiv. 
been  'void of  offence,'  became  'defiled'  and  j^'.  Heb." 
*  evil.'     It  witnessed  against   himself,  yet 


1  The  writer  has  not  been  able  to  ascertain  who  first  made 
this  assertion,  which  has  been  so  often  repeated ;  nor  yet 
who  first  made  the  allied  and  true  observation  that  we  never 
read  of  our  Lord's  conscience. 


y5  ^HE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN. 

witnessed  not  properly  nor  fully  of  God.  And  the 
darkening  thus  begun  rapidly  increased,  and  along 
with  it  man's  moral  deterioration,  so  that  the  mourn- 
ful record  of  Scripture  is,  God  saw  that  the  wicked- 
Gen.  vi.  5.]  ii(^^^  of  ina7i  was  great  in  the  earthy  and 
that  every  imagination  of  the  tJionghts  of  his  heart 
Vs.  xvi.  9.]  zvas  only  evil  continually.  Man  had  become 
Jlesh;  ^  his  glory  could  no  longer  *  rejoice.' 

Still,  man  was  not  suffered  to  cast  himself  en- 
Heb.  xii.  tirely  off  from  the  Father  of  Spirits.  If 
^'  God,  consistently  with  the  freedom  which 

He  had  given  man,  did  not  hinder  his  alienation,  He 
took  care  that  man  should  not  forget  it,  that  there 
should  be  something  in  man  to  witness  of  it  and  to 
witness  of  Him.  God  continued  to  man  a  natural 
conscience  ;  though,  man  being  what  he  was,  it  was 
Heb.  X.  2.]  mainly  a  conscience  of  sins.  Yet  was  it 
also  a  conscience  of  God,'  and  of  God's  claims,  a 
conscience  of  eternal  law  and  of  unalterable  obliga- 


1  See  Lecture  III.  pp.  42,  43. 

2  The  expression  awel^r^Gcg  Oeov  is  found  in  i  Pet.  ii.  19, 
but  has  reference  there  to  the  believer,  not  to  man  generally. 
The  word  awelSfjag  does  not-  occur  in  the  Gospels,  save  in 
the  disputed  section  concerning  the  woman  taken  in  adultery 
(John  viii.  9.) 


THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN.  yy 

tion.  And  yet  this  natural  conscience,  with  all  its 
significance,  was  not  sufficient  either  for  guidance  or 
restraint.^  It  was  not  even  sufficient  to  maintain 
itself.  It  might  easily  be  overborne,  might  become 
perverted,  yea,  even  'cauterised.'  And  i  Tim.iv. 
hence  the  necessity  for  an  outward  authori-  ^* 
tative  Rule  to  regulate  it.  This  necessity  is  shewn 
not  only  by  history  generally,^  but  by  the  early 
history  of  God's  chosen  people,  the  Israelites.     They 


1  Bp.  Butler  is  thought  by  some  to  have  written  incau- 
tiously concerning  what  he  calls  the  '  prerogative  '  and '  natural 
supremacy'  of  conscience  (Serm.  II.  Upon  Hiiman  Nature). 
But  the  general  tenor  of  his  writings  proves  that  he  was  the 
last  person  to  make  conscience  an  independent  and  ultimate 
judge  of  human  actions. 

2  '  Wherefore,  inasmuch  as  our  actions  are  conversant 
about  things  beset  with  many  circumstances,  which  cause 
men  of  sundry  wits  to  be  also  of  sundry  judgments  concern- 
ing that  which  ought  to  be  done,  requisite  it  cannot  but  seem 
the  Rule  of  divine  law  should  herein  help  our  imbecility,  that 
we  might  the  more  infallibly  understand  what  is  good  and 
what  evil.  The  first  principles  of  the  law  of  Nature  are  easy ; 
hard  it  were  to  find  men  ignorant  of  them.  But  concerning 
the  duty  which  Nature's  law  doth  require  at  the  hands  of  men 
in  a  number  of  things  particular,  so  far  hath  the  natural  un- 
derstanding even  of  sundry  whole  nations  been  darkened,  that 
they  have  not  discerned  no  not  gross  iniquity  to  be  sin.' — 
Hooker,  Eccl.  Pol.,  Bk.  i.  ch.  xii.  2. 


78 


THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN. 


had  the  greatest  advantages.  They  had  sacred 
Tradition  to  inform  them,  wise  patriarchs  and  leaders 
to  govern  them,  and  a  providential  discipline  which, 
if  any,  should  have  kept  them  in  the  right  way.  Yet 
they  continually  mistook  and  forsook  that  way. 
Ps  cvi  21  They  forgot  their  Saviour.  .  .  .  They  pro- 
29,  19,  20.  looked  Jiim  to  anger  by  their  doings  .  .  . 
They  made  a  calf  in  Horeb,  and  worshipped  the 
molten  image ;  and  they  exchanged  their  Glory  for 
the  likeness  of  an  ox  that  eateth  grass.  All  this 
shews  how  absolute  was  the  need  of  a  special  rev- 
elation to  enlighten,  inform,  guide  and  coerce  cons- 
cience. 

And  such  a  revelation  God  was  pleased  to  give. 
He  gave  it  at  Sinai.  He-  promulgated  the  Mosaic 
law. 

To  see  the  significance  of  this  law,  take  the  first 
and  the  last  of  the  ten  commandments.  After  the 
solemn  preamble,  /  am  yehovah  thy  God  !  comes  the 
command,  Thotc  shall  have  none  other  gods 


Ex. 


XX. 


3-  before  My  face.     What  a  needful  prohibi- 

tion !  And  what  a  depth  of  meaning  does  it  ob- 
tain when  taken  in  connection  with  the  preamble 
mentioned,  and  with  the  sacred  gloss  given  after- 


THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN.  ^q 

wards  :  Hear,  O  Israel,  yehovah  our  God  Deut.  vi. 
is  one  yehovah.  And  thou  shall  love  ye-  ^'  -5' 
hovah  thy  God  with  all  tJmte  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  zuith  all  thy  might.  Could  anything 
supply  a  clearer  guide  to  conscience,  or  impose  a 
stronger  check  on  conscience,  or  prove  a  swifter 
witness  against  conscience  ?  With  such  an  injunc- 
tion flaming  before  the  soul,  idolatry,  even  in  its 
most  secret  retreats,  and  under  its  most  specious  dis- 
guises, was  exposed  and  condemned. 

Take  again  the  tenth   commandment,    ^^^^  ^^ 
Thou  shalt  not  covet.     This    is    the    com-    ^7- 
mandment  which  the  Apostle  Paul  selects  to  illus- 
trate the  mighty  working  of  the  Levitical  law.     / 
had  not  known  sin.,  he  says,  except  through     ^^^  ^jj^ 
the  law  :   for  I  had  not  known  coveting  if    7>  8. 
the  law  had  not  said.  Thou  shalt  not  covet.   But  sin^ 
seizing  the  occasion,  by  means  of  the  com^nandment 
zvivught  in  me  all  maujier  of  coveting.      In  other 
words :  the  divine  prohibition  gave  occasion  for  my 
evil  nature  to  display  itself ;  it  called  forth  and  ex- 
posed that  innate  corruption  which  is  man's  fatal 
characteristic  ;    it   shewed   that  man's  natural  de- 
sires (kniOoiuui)  are  no  longer  natural,  but  vitiated  and 


go  THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN. 

T^  •••  perverted  ;  ^  shewed,  in  short,  that  themmd 
7-  of  the  flesh  is  enmity  against  God. 

And  of  similar  significance  and  efficacy  was  the 
law  generally.  The  law  revealed  to  man  '  the  radi- 
cal evil '  that  was  in  him.^  It  shewed  him  the  cor- 
ruption of  his  nature,  and  the  exceeding  sinfulness 
of  sin.  It  shewed  him  that  there  was  a  might  within 
hostile  to  the  rule  of  God,  and  most  tyrannous  in  its 
operation.  It  shewed  him  that  his  will  was  so  en- 
Rom  vii  feebled  and  corrupted  that  though  he 
^^'  might  wish  to  do  zvhat  zvas  good,  evil  was 

present  with  him.  More  terrible  fact  still,  the  law 
Sec  Rom.  made  sin  'to  abound  : '  for  it  furnished  some- 
^'  ^°'  thing  whereon  it  might  fasten  ;  it  fanned 

into  activity  the  slumbering  sparks  of  evil.  And  thus 
Rom.  iv.  ^^i<^  ^'^"^  worked  wrath  and  death.  And  yet 
15;  vii.  13.  ^^  i^.yAi  was  not  with  the  law  but  with 


1  Hence  the  expression  emOvfiia  kgk?}  (Col.  ii.  5);  e-n-idv- 
fiiai  rrj^  aTrdrrjq  (Eph.  iv.  22)  ;  h  nddet  eTriOvfiiag  (i  Thes.  iv. 
5);  Trddr/  dri/iiag  (Rom,  i.  26)  ;  TraOijiiara  ribv  dfiapricjv  (Rom. 
vii.  5). 

-  Kant's  celebrated  treatise  Vom  radicalen  Boseit  did 
much,  especially  amongst  his  own  countrymen,  for  '  the  dis- 
closure,' if  not  'of  sin,'  yet  of  something  very  like  it.  Kant's 
services  to  religion  have  not  been  sufficiently  acknowledged. 


THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN.  gj 

man.    The  law  was  spiritual,  but  man  was     Rom.  viL 
carnal,  sold  under  sin.     Man  had  so  cor-     Gen.vi. 

12. 

rupted  his  ways  that  the  very  commandmejity  Rom.  vii. 
which  was  ordained  to  life,  was  found  to 
be  unto  death.  And  thus  a  fearful  but  needful  de- 
monstration was  furnished  to  man  of  his  ruined  and 
helpless  condition  by  nature.  The  law  proved  con- 
clusively that  all  flesh,  i.  e.  all  men  in  their  ^^^  -. 
natural  condition,  were  out  of  the  way,  and  ^°'  ^"^  '2- 
could  not  get  back  into  the  way  ;  that  they  had  fallen 
short  of  God's  glory,  and,  left  to  them-  Rom.  3. 
selves,  must  for  ever  remain  short  of  it.^         ^^* 

And  as  God's  ancient  law  proved  and  accom- 
plished all  this,  so  still  more  effectually  does  God's 
present  law.  For  the  Christian  also  is  under  a 
law  :  not  being  law-exempt  {avofioq)  to  God,  '  Cor.  ix. 
but  law-bou7zd  (h'^o/xoc)  to  Christ.  And  the 
Christian's  law  reaches  much  further  than  that 
ancient  law.^  It  includes  all  that  was  spiritual 
and  essential  in  the  Mosaic  law,  and  it  superadds 
requirements  and  obligations  of  its  own.     It  gives 


1  Cf.   I    Cor.  i.  29 :    ottw^  htj   Kavxvf^riraL   naca   aap^  h^mov 


avTov. 


2  See  for  instance,  Matth.  v.  27  ff. 
6 


32  THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN. 

a  knowledge  of  sin  such  as  the  Jewish  law  did  not, 
and  indeed  could  not,  give.  For  the  Jewish  law  was 
necessarily  provisional  and  preparatory,  whereas  our 
John  i.  9.     law  is  final.    The  true  Light,  ivhich  light en- 

1  John  i.  2.  eth  every  man.,  hath  come  into  the  world. 
John  i.  iS.    The  Life  hath  been  manifested,    and   we 

have  seen  it.  The  only-begotten  Son,  ivJio 
is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath  declared  God 
to  us,  and  declared  us  to  ourselves.^  More  espe- 
cially has  He  shewn  us — and  that  in  a  manner  the 
most  affecting  possible — the  exceeding  sinfulness 
T  Tim.  iii.    of   sin     By   displaying  to  us  tJie  mystery 

2  Thes.  ii.  of  godliness  He  has  enabled  us  to  judge 
7. 

of  tJie  mystery  of  lawlessness.  And  He  has 

furnished  us  with  a  Rule  of  conscience  at  once  the 
most  comprehensive  and  the  most  precise,  a  Rule 
which  is  always  intelligible  and  always  applicable. 
And  yet  it  need  not  be  said  that  not  all  Christ's 


i  '  Non  seulement  nous  ne  connaissons  Dleu  que  par 
Jesus-Christ,  mais  nous  ne  connaissons  nous-memes  que  par 
Jesus-Christ  .  .  .  Hors  de  Jesus-Christ  nous  ne  savons  ce 
que  c'est  ni  que  notre  vie,  ni  que  notre  mort,  ni  que  Dieu, 
ni  que  nous-memes.  Ainsi  sans  TEcriture,  qui  n'a  que 
Jesus-Christ  pour  objet,  nous  ne  connaissons  rien,  et  ne  voyons 
qu'obscurite  et  confusion  dans  la  nature  de  Dieu  et  dans  la 
propre  nature.' — Pascal,  Pensccs,  vol.  ii.  p.  274  (Ed.  Astie). 


THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN.  83 

disciples  fully  receive  His  testimony^  and   regulate 
themselves  accordingly.     No,  now  as  for-   john  iii. 
merly,  not  all  they  who  are  of  Israel,  are   RomT  ix. 
Israel.     Many  tttrn  away  from  Him  who    ^^y^  ^^jj 
speaketh  from  heaven.     They  heed  not  the    ^5- 
admonitions  which  by  His  word  and  providence  He 
gives  them.     But  this  does  not  release  them  from 
their  solemn  obligation.    Whether  they  will  [Ezek.  ii.  5. 
hear  or  whether  they  will  forbear,  they  are  still  under 
Christ's  law  ;  they  are  answerable  to  Him  for  all  they 
do,  and  for  all  they  are.      And,  when  conscience 
awakes,  Christ's  law  is  sure   to  assert  itself.      To 
show  how  it  asserts  itself,  and  also  how  it  embodies 
and  enforces  all  previous  law,  take  an  illustration  : 

A  young  man  has  been  leading  a  selfish,  heed- 
less, immoral  life.  By  some  providential  circum- 
stance— by  reading  a  book  or  hearing  a  sermon — 
he  is  brought  to  see  his  doings  as  he  has  not  seen 
them  before.  He  becomes  uneasy  and  concerned. 
Conscience  more  and  more  agitates  him.  He 
earnestly  asks  himself,  What  have  I  to  expect  at 
the  hands  of  my  offended  God }  He  turns  to  the 
Bible  to  see  what  it  says,  but  especially  what  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  says.     A  new  perception  comes 


84 


THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN. 


to  him.  He  recognises  the  righteousness  and 
reasonableness  of  God's  requirements,  and  his  own 
baseness  and  ingratitude.  His  sin  appears  to  him 
exceeding  heinous  and  loathsome.  He  longs  to 
be  rid  of  it,  and  reconciled  to  God,  longs  for 
Ps.  li.  lo.  a  clean  heart  a7ida  steadfast  spirit  within. 
And  so,  the  Spirit  being  gracious  unto  him,  he 
turns  to  God  with  full  purpose  of  heart,  he  seeks 
Acts  xi.  help  from  the  sole  Helper,  he  obtains  re- 
pentance u7ito  life. 
This  example  will  explain  to  us  how,  now 
as  formerly,  the  law  discloses  sin,  and  is  the 
I  Cor.  XV.  strength  {pwajuz)  of  sin.  It  will  also  ex- 
^  plain  to  us  that  searching  of   the  Scrip- 

tures which  in  all  awakened  men  is  so  remarkable 
a  feature.  The  awakened  man  longs  for  certitude. 
His  enquiry  is,  'When  and  how  has  God  spoken  ?' 
No  matter  whether  it  be  to  the  Jews  or  to  any  one 
else,  if  he  is  persuaded  that  the  voice  is  God's 
voice,  he  listens  eagerly  to  it.  Now  the  Bible  is 
known  to  be  God's  book,  and  by  consequence  to  be 
authoritative.^     To    it   therefore   does  the  anxious 


^  *  Quia  scriptura  Deum  atictorcm  habet,  inde  atque  ideo 
divinam  ajictoritatem  obtinet.' — Joh.  Gerhard. 


THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN.  gc 

enquirer  turn.  And  he  soon  finds  that,  in  dealing 
with  it,  he  is  not  dealing  with  a  common  book, 
finds  that  the  word  of  God  is  livijig,  and 

Heb.  iv. 
active y  and   sharper    than    any  tzvo-edged      12. 

sword,  piercing  even  to  the  dividing  of  soul  and  spirit, 

as  well  as  of  joints  and  marrow,  and  is  a  discernerof 

the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart.    Thus  does, 

Holy  Scripture  make  good  its  own  authority ;  thus 

by  the  manifestation  of  the  truth  does  it       ^ 

-^  J  J  2  Cor.  IV. 

commend  itself  to  every  mans  conscience    2. 
in  the  sight  of  God. 

Nor  is  it  enquirers  and  novices  only  who  have 
recourse  to  Scripture  for  light  and  guidance.  God's 
advanced  and  faithful  servants  do  so  as  well,  and  do 
so  continually.  They  turn  to  Scripture /(?r  2  Tim.  iiL 
doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction.,  for  ^  ' 
discipline  in  righteousness.  And  they  find  Scripture 
ever  efficacious.  But  especially  efficacious  is  it  in 
disclosing  sin  under  all  disguises,  in  bring-  j  Cor.  iv. 
i7tg  to  light  the  hidden  thittgs  of  darkfzess,  ^' 
and  making  manifest  the  counsels  of  the  heart.  The 
world  may  oscillate  in  its  opinions  and  judgments, 
i  t  may  call  evil  good,  and  the  good  evil ;  may  Is.  v.  20. 
////  darkness  for  light,  and  light  for  darkness  ;  may 


36  THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN, 

put  bitter  for  szvcct,  and  sweet  for  bitter:  but  the  en- 
lightened conscience  is  not  deceived.  It  knows 
James  iv.  that  One  only  is  the  Lawgiver  and  yudge} 
Rom.  xiv.  "^"^^  that  to  Him  every  man  standeth  or 
4-  falleth.      Hence    *what   hath    the    Lord 

spoken  .'*'  is  the  believer's  invariable  demand.     And 

1  Cor.  ii.  having  learnt  the  mind  of  the  Lord,  he 
i6. 

judges  and  acts  accordingly.     He  applies 

himself  with  his  whole  heai*t  to  keep  God's 
Ps.  cxix.  -^ 

2.  testimonies.     And  those  testimonies  prove 

Ps.  xix.  II.  his  constant  safeguard.  By  them  he  is 
taught,  and  by  them  warned  and  restrain- 
Jamesi.2i.  ^^^  jy^^  implanted  ze'^r^— implanted  by 
the  Holy  Spirit — becomes  emphatically  to  him 
Phil.  ii.  i6.  the  word  of  life?     It  reveals  to  him  his 

2  Pet.  iii.     own  sin,  and  it  keeps  him  from  being  led 

away  with  the  error  of  the  wicked  (dLOiafxm). 
Ps.  cxix.  II.  Thy  word  do  I  treasure  up  in  viy  heart, 

that  I  may  not  sin  against  Thee  .  .  . 
Ps.  xvii.  4.   By  the  word  of  Thy  lips  I  have  guarded 

myself  against  the  paths  of  the  destroyer .  .  . 

Ps.  xxxvi. 

I,  An  oracle  concerning  the  sin  of  the  un- 

1  Ka\  KpiT-fis  must  without  doubt  be  added  to  the  Text.  Rec. 

2  Cf.  AJ70S  ^u)y  (I  Pet.  i,  23)  ;   A6yia  (ui>Ta  (Acts  vil.  38). 


THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN. 


87 


godly  is  within  my  heart}  .  .  .  I  will  never  forget 
Thy  precepts,  for  with  them  Thou  hast  Ps.  cxix.93. 
quick  cited  me. 

And  by  following  on  in  the  way  of  obedience, 
the  true  disciple  attains  to  ever  clearer  insight  and 
ever  enlarging  freedom.^  The  Truth,  practised  in 
the  love  of  it,  progressively  emancipates  and  en- 
nobles him.^  The  law's  restraint  gives  place  to  the 
law's  security.  That  awful  Power  which  confronts 
every  one  in  life,  and  which  may  not  be  evaded, 
becomes  the  believer's  strength  and  rejoicing.'' 
Having   subordinated   his   will   to   God's   will,   he 


1  Some,  however,  make  the  true  rendering  to  be :  an 
oracle  of  transgression  hath  the  tmgodly  hi  his  heart.  See 
De  Wette,  Comm.  iiber  die  Psalmen^  ad  1. 

^  See  Bp.  Jer.  Taylor's  sermon  on  John  vii.  17,  headed  Via 
intelligeiiticE.  Concerning  this  sermon  Bp.  Heber  says  :  '  I 
am  not  acquainted  with  any  composition  of  human  eloquence 
which  is  more  deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  practical 
hoHness,  which  more  powerfully  attracts  the  attention  of  men 
from  the  subtilties  of  theology  to  the  duties  and  charities  of 
religion,  or  which  evinces  a  more  lofty  disdain  of  those  trifling 
subjects  of  dispute  which  then  and  since  have  divided  the 
Protestant  churches.' 

3  Cf.  John  viii.  31,  32  ;  James  i.  25. 

4  '  Jenes  Gesetz,  das  mit  ehrnem  Stab  den  Straubenden  lenket, 
Dir  nicht  gilt's  :  was  du  thust,  was  dir  gefallt,  ist  Gesetz.' 

Schiller,  Der  Genitis. 


gg  THE  DISCLOSURE  OF  SIN. 

Is  xlviii      enjoys  perfect  freedom  ;^  his  peace  is  as  a 
i8.  river,  his   righteousness  as  the  waves  of 

the  sea.    He  attains  to  that  blessed  state  where 

*  Love  is  an  unerring  light, 
And  joy  its  own  security.'  2 


^  *  No  man  is  truly  free  but  he  that  hath  his  will  enlarged 
to  the  extent  of  God's  own  will,  by  loving  whatsoever  God 
loves,  and  nothing  else.  Such  an  one  .  .  .  enjoys  a  bound- 
less liberty,  and  a  boundless  sweetness,  according  to  his 
boundless  love.  He  enclaspeth  the  whole  world  within  his 
outstretched  arms ;  his  soul  is  as  wide  as  the  whole  universe, 
as  big  2,%  yesterday,  to-day^  and  for  ever.^ — Cud  worth,  vol. 
iv.  p.  347  (Ed.  Birch). 

2  Wordsworth,  Ode  to  Duty. 


LECTURE  VI. 

THE   PROPITIATION    FOR  SIN, 


Unum  pro  multis  dabitur  caput. 

ViRG.  ^71.  V.  815. 


Salve,  caput  cruentatum, 
Totum  spinis  coronatum, 
Conquassatum,  vulneratum ! 

Bernardus. 


What  comfort  by  Him  do  we  win, 
Who  made  Himself  the  price  of  sin. 
To  make  us  heirs  of  glory  ! 

Ben  Jonson,  U'?ide?"woods. 


THE   PROPITIATION    FOR  SIN. 

[preached   on   GOOD   FRIDAY.] 

ginh  '§t  k  i\^t  i^xopimtmx  for  out  sins;  anb:   not  iax 
Dux»    oxxlyi,  but   uba  for  i^z   sins  of  tlj£   toljok   foorlb. — 

I  John  ii.  2. 

In  Henry  Martyn's  Indian  Journal  (March  1807) 
we  read  as  follows:  'Talking  to  the  Moonshee/^ 
he  cut  me  to  the  very  heart  by  his  contemptuous 
reflections  on  the  Gospel  ;  saying  that,  after  the 
present  generation  was  passed  away,  a  race  of  fools 
might  perhaps  arise,  who  would  try  to  believe  that 
God  could  be  a  man,  and  man  God,  and  who  would 
say  that  this  was  the  word  of  God.  ...  It  shows 
God  to  be  weak,  if  He  is  obliged  to  have  a  fellow. 
God  was  not  obliged  to  become  incarnate  :  for  if 
we  had  all  perished.   He  would   not  have   suffered 


That  is,  his  Mahometan  teacher  of  languages. 


g2  THE  PRO  PIT! A  TION  FOR  SIN. 

loss.  And  as  to  pardon  and  the  difficulty  of  it, 
said  he,  I  pardon  my  servant  very  easily,  and  there 
is  an  end  of  it.'  ^ 

It  is  the  concluding  remark  of  the  Moonshee  I 
wish  you  particularly  to  notice :  *  I  pardon  my 
servant  very  easily,  and  there  is  an  end  of  it.' 
This  remark  gives  in  a  pithy  form  one  of  the 
commonest  objections  to  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
the  Atonement.  '  Men,'  say  the  objectors  (and 
never  were  they  more  numerous  or  more  confident 
than  at  present),  *  men,  or  at  all  events  good  men, 
find  no  difficulty  in  freely  pardoning  those  who 
have  injured  or  offended  them,  and  that  without 
having  received  any  kind  of  satisfaction  ;  and  shall 
the  Most  High  God  be  less  gracious  and  less  plac- 
able than  His  creatures  ? '  But  let  me  give  the  very 
words  of  one  of  the  best  known  objectors. 

'  It  would  derogate,*  says  Faustus  Socinus, 
'from  God's  majesty  and.  benignity  if  it  were  a 
necessity  with  Him  either  to  punish  our  sins  or  to 
receive  satisfaction  for  them :  for  it  would  mani- 
festly follow  that  God  either  could  not  or  would  not 


^Sargent's  Memoir  of  Henry  Martyn^  p.  221  (Ed.  16). 


THE  PROPITIA  TION  FOR  SIN.  g^ 

forgive  and  freely  condone  our  sins.'  ^  And  again : 
'There  is  no  man  who  cannot  with  perfect  justice 
condone  and  remit  injuries  which  have  been  done 
to  him  and  debts  which  are  due  to  him,  without 
having  received  any  true  satisfaction  on  account  of 
them.  Hence  then,  unless  we  would  concede  to 
God  less  than  we  concede  to  men  themselves,  we 
must  by  all  means  admit  that  God  can  justly  forgive 
us  our  sins  without  having  received  any  proper 
satisfaction  for  them.'  ^ 

Now  in  all  such  objections  the  assumption  is 
one  and  the  same  :  viz.  that  as  it  is  natural  and 
proper  for  men  to  forgive  one  another,  therefore  it 
must  be  natural  and  proper  for  God  also  to  forgive 
sinning  men.  Or,  to  quote  once  more  the  Moon- 
shee,  '  I  pardon  my  servant  very  easily,  and  there 
is  an  end  of  it.'  But  let  us  ask  ourselves  :  Why  is 
it  proper— I  say  nothing  now  about  '  natural ' — but 


1  F.  Socinus,  Christ.  Rel.  brev.  Institutio  (Bibl.  Fratrum 
Polon.  vol.  i.  p.  665). 

2  Idem,  PrcBlect.  Theolog.,  cap.  xvi. — The  Racovian 
Catechism,  as  might  be  supposed,  is  very  full  on  this  subject ; 
and  very  bitter  also.  See  Guericke,  Christ.  Symbolik,  pp. 
355-357  (Ed.  3). 


g4  THE  PROPITIA  TION  FOR  SIN. 

why  is  it  proper — suitable — that  men  should  forgive 
their  fellows  ?  The  answer  comes  at  once  :  Because 
they  themselves  have  need  of  forgiveness.  In 
James  many  things  we  all  offend,  and  that  both 
consciously  and  unwittingly.  We  frequent- 
ly injure  our  neighbor,  and  still  more  frequently 
fall  short  in  duty  towards  him.  And  because  a;l 
men  thus  offend,  because  the  best  of  us  never  per- 
fectly and  undeviatingly  perform  all  our  obligations 
to  others,  therefore  it  is  proper,  when  others  trans- 
gress against  us,  that  we  should  forgive  them,  more 
particularly  if  they  acknowledge  their  fault.  But 
does  this  apply  to  God  .''  Is  He  frail  and  peccant 
like  ourselves  }  Does  He  need,  and  know  that  He 
needs,  forbearance  at  the  hands  of  others }  The 
very  thought  is  impious.  Hence  then  the  above- 
mentioned  comparison  and  inference  fails  in  an 
essential  particular.  It  is  assumed,  audaciously 
assumed,  that  God  and  man  are  one  in  nature  and 
circumstance  :  whereas  God  is  all-holy,  and  man  is 
grievously  corrupt ;  God  is  all-sufficient,  and  man 
is  miserably  helpless  and  dependent. 

But  further  :  is  it  true   that    men    can    always 
forgive  without  more  ado,  whenever  they  choose  to 


THE  PROPITIATION  FOR  SIN.  q^ 

do  so  ?  Can  a  father,  for  instance,  always  pass 
over  his  child's  transgression,  even  when  he  believes 
the  child  to  be  sincerely  penitent  ?  Does  he  not 
often  feel  compelled  to  punish  the  child  ?  And 
why  ?  For  the  child's  own  sake,  and  for  the  sake 
of  his  other  children,  and  for  the  sake  of  his  own 
authority.  The  father,  on  full  consideration,  deems 
punishment  to  be  necessary,  deems  that  the  omis- 
sion of  it  would  give  rise  to  grave  mischief ;  and 
therefore,  notwithstanding  the  pain  it  causes  him,  he 
inflicts  it.  And  is  it  then  so  incredible  that  God, 
the  Father  ofall^  should  visit  for  sin  ?  that  He  ^pj^ 
should  exact  something  more  than  an  acknowl-  ^^'  ^' 
edgment  of  regret,  and  even  than  genuine  sorrow  ? 
Or  take  another  illustration,  that  furnished  by 
civil  government.  Does  civil  government  pardon 
offences  without  more  ado  ?  Does  it  not  rather  set 
itself  systematically  to  punish  them  ?  Civil  govern- 
ment has  to  watch  over  the  rights  and  well-being 
of  the  many  ;  and  when  any  one  violates  those  rights 
and  injures  that  well-being,  civil  government  pun- 
ishes him,  or  does  its  best  to  punish  him.  And,  as 
we  all  know,  some  of  its  punishments  are  final  as 
regards  the  offender.     For  not  only  is  he  deprived 


q5  the  propitia  tjon  for  sin. 

of  bodily  freedom  for  the  remainder  of  his  days,  but 
he  even  has  life  ignominiously  taken  from  him. 
And  is  it  then  so  incredible  that  God,  the  Governor 
of  the  universe,  the  Governor  not  of  men  only  but 
of  all  created  intelligences,  should  punish  man  for 
sin  ?  Is  it  so  inconceivable  that  the  general  interests 
of  His  creatures,  to  say  nothing  of  the  maintenance 
of  His  own  authority,  should  require  Him  to  mark 
with  His  displeasure  insulted  and  violated  law  ?  ^ 

So  that,  even  on  general  considerations,  the 
pardoning  of  sin  is  by  no  means  the  easy,  matter- 
of-course  thing  which  some  have  assumed  it  to  be. 

But  in  truth  we  have  thus  far  touched  only  the 


1  'Though  we  ought  to  reason  with  all  reverence  whenever 
we  reason  concerning  the  Divine  conduct,  yet  it  is  clearly 
contrary  to  all  our  notions  of  government,  as  well  as  to  what 
is,  in  fact,  the  general  constitution  of  nature,  to  suppose  that 
doing  well  for  the  future  should,  in  all  cases,  prevent  all  judi- 
cial bad  consequences  of  having  done  evil  or  all  the  punishment 
annexed  to  disobedience  .  .  .  And  though  the  efficacy  of  re- 
pentance itself  alone,  to  prevent  what  mankind  had  rendered 
themselves  obnoxious  to,  and  recover  what  they  had  forfeited, 
is  now  insisted  upon  in  opposition  to  Christianity,  yet  by  the 
general  prevalence  of  propitiatory  sacrifices  over  the  heathen 
world,  this  notion  of  repentance  alone  being  sufficient  to  ex- 
piate guilt  appears  to  be  contrary  to  the  general  sense  of  man- 
kind.'— Bp.  Butler,  Analogy^  part  ii.  ch.  v. 


THE  PROPITIA  TION  FOR  SIN.  gy 

outside  of  the  matter.  For  we  have  left  unheeded  the 
vital  consideration  that  an  offence  committed  against 
man  and  an  offence  committed  against  God  are  two 
utterly  different  things,  two  incommensurable  things. 
And  it  is  precisely  this  consideration  which  the 
objectors  in  question  studiously  and  persistently 
neglect.  They  use  indiscriminately  the  terms  '  for- 
giveness' and  '  to  forgive/  as  though  it  were  one  and 
the  same  thing  for  a  man  to  forgive  his  fellow  and 
for  the  infinite  God  to  forgive  man.  In  short,  they 
do  not  recognise,  and  will  not  be  brought  to  recog- 
nise, the  awful  significance  of  sin.^ 

And  yet,  surely,  the  very  doings  of  men  might 
afford  them  instruction,  might  suggest  to  them 
something  of  that  unspeakable  difference  which  they 
choose  to  ignore.  Does  any  earthly  judge,  for  ex- 
ample, take  cognisance,  or  profess  to  take  cognisance, 
of  sin  as  sin  t  Or  does  he  imagine  that  he  has  ju- 
risdiction over  the  heart  and  the  conscience  "i  He 
never  dreams  of  such  a  thing.  What  he  regards, 
what  he  only  can  regard,  are  outward  acts,  and  their 

1  'Sin,  as  commonly  understood,  is  a  chimera.  .  .  The 
source  of  all  superstition  is  the  fear  of  having  offended  God,  the 
sense  of  something  within  ourselves  which  we  call  sin.' — 
Froude,  The  Ne?nesis  of  Faith,  pp.  90,  92.  (Ed.  2.) 

7 


gg  THE  PROPITIA  TION  FOR  SIN. 

obvious  or  probable  consequences.  No  doubt  he 
can  occasionally  give  effect,  at  least  partially,  to  his 
own  personal  persuasion  as  to  the  amount  of  a  pris- 
oner's moral  culpability  :  but  in  the  first  place,  this 
is  to  go  beyond  his  proper  province  ;  and,  in  the 
second  place,  he  cannot,  with  the  best  will,  go  far. 
He  is  bound  down  by  strict  regulations.  The  Statute- 
Book  says,  *  When  such  offences  are  proved  to  have 
been  committed,  such  and  such  penalties  are  to  be 
inflicted.'  And  in  assigning  and  ordering  these 
penalties,  the  legislature  never  thought  of  estimating 
and  punishing  moral  guilt  :  it  thought  only  of  the 
injury  done  to  society,  and  of  the  best  means  of 
checking  and  deterring  from  it. 

But  how  different  when  we  turn  from  men  to 
God  ;  when  we  grasp  the  meaning,  the  very  faintest 
■meaning,  of  the  word  sin.  God  is  not  a  man  like 
unto  ourselves.  ^  He  is  the  perfection  of  all  per- 
fections :  the  all-holy,  all-just,  all-wise,  all-glorious 
Ruler  of  the  universe.  And  we  men  are  the  work 
of  His  hands,  His  rational,  moral,  responsible  crea- 
tures.    It  is  true  we  no  longer   have    that    pristine 

1  To  whom  will yc  liken  Me,  or  shall  I  be  equal?  saith  the 
Holy  0/ie.— {Is.  xl.  25.) 


THE  PROPITIA  TION  FOR  SIN.  qq 

excellence  which  was  originally  given  us — and  the 
very  fact  that  we  have  it  not  is  an  accusation  against 
us,  as  well  as  an  aggravation  of  our  position — yet 
have  we  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  and  the 
power,  the  awful  power,  of  self-determination.  For 
us,  therefore,  thus  constituted,  thus  dependent,  thus 
accountable,  to  set  ourselves  against  God — to  sin — is 
a  wholly  different  thing  from  man  offending  against 
man.  Nay,  all  that  is  really  significant  in  any  offence 
of  man  against  man  is  due  solely  to  the  guilt  incurred 
with  respect  to  God.^  And  the  removal  of  guilt,  of 
any  guilt,  is  so  far  from  being  an  easy,  matter-of- 
course  thing,  that,  looked  at  from  without,  it  is  the 
most  improbable  of  things,  not  to  say  an  utterly  im- 
possible tiling.^  Even  if  revelation  had  told  us  noth- 
ing concerning  the  nature  of  sin  and  the  consequences 
of  sin,  the  natural  question  would  still  be  that  ancient 

^  Against  Thee  only  have  I  sinned,  and  done  what  is 
evil  in  Thine  eyes. — (Ps.  li.  4.) 

2  And  such,  in  fact,  has  come  to  be  the  opinion  of  the 
leaders  of  modern  infidelity.  Instead  of  reproaching  Chris- 
tianity, as  was  formerly  done,  for  representing  God  as  vindic- 
tive and  implacable,  it  is  now  the  fashion  to  denounce  Chris- 
tianity for  presuming  to  teach  that  there  is  any  such  thing  as 
the  forgiveness  of  sin.  And  truly  it  is  a  great  word  which 
the  Christian  Church  puts  into  the  mouth  of  her  children  :  '  I 
believe  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins.' 


lOO  THE  PROPITIATION  FOR  SIN. 

one,  If  a  man  sin  against  the  Lord,  zvho  shall  in- 
I  Sam.  ii.  25.   treat  for  him  f 

But  once  more  :  supposing  even  that  God  had 
been  able,  consistently  with  His  own  perfections 
and  the  claims  of  His  moral  government,  to  pardon 
man  off-hand,  what  would  have  been  gained  by  His 
doing  so  ?  What  likelihood  was  there  that  the  rela- 
tionship between  God  and  man  would  be  improved 
thereby  ?  that,  in  fact,  man  would  be  a  gainer  by 
God's  clemency  ?  No  likelihood  whatsoever.  Man, 
with  his  miserably  corrupt  nature,  would  soon  have 
relapsed  into  his  old  estate — if  indeed  he  could  ever 
have  left  it.  And  thus  the  end  of  all  would  have 
been  that  man's  criminality  would  have  been  greater 
than  ever,  because  of  his  new  abuse  of  mercy.  No, 
man's  condition,  so  far  as  he  himself  was  concerned, 
was  desperate.  He  owed  ten  thousand  talents,  and 
See  Matth.  ^^^d  not  a  farthing  to  pay.  He  was  guilty 
xviu.  24,  25.  Qfieze-majesty  against  the  King  of  heaven, 
and  every  day  added  to  his  criminality,  because 
every  day  saw  some  new  violation  of  duty,  some 
fresh  act  of  defiance  and  iniquity.  And  conse- 
quently wrath,  and  nothing  but  wrath,  seemed  to  be 
man's  heritage  for  ever. 


THE  PROPITIA  TION  FOR  SIN.  j  q  j 

Now  from  this  terrible  state  it  was — this  state  of 
enmity,  condemnation,  and  hopelessness — that  Jesus 
Christ,  God's  only-begotten  Son,  delivered  man. 
And  He  did  so  in  a  manner  truly  wonderful.  Had 
we  not  the  plain  assurances  of  Scripture  on  the 
subject,  we  might  well  hesitate  to  believe  any- 
thing so  extraordinary.  Jesus  Christ,  the  Scripture 
teaches  us,  delivered  man  by  putting  Himself  into 
man's  place,  by  performing  man's  obligations,  and 
by  suffering  for  man's  siru  Having  assumed  human 
nature  in  the  womb  of  a  Virgin,  Jesus  Christ  lived, 
obeyed,  suffered,  and  died  in  man's  stead  and  as 
man's  propitiation.^  And  this  He  did  in  accordance 
with  the  loving  *  will '  and  '  purpose  '  of  His  heav- 


1  The  three  terms  more  particularly  used  for  Christ's  work 
of  atonement  are  aTroPirpwcff,  i?Mafi6c,  and  Kara/Jiayrj.  I.  'Atto- 
Ivrpuaiq  (redemptio)  is  the  most  general  term,  and  points 
specially  to  the  ransom  Qvrpov)  which  Christ  paid  for  {vivep^ 
Trep/)  men  :  the  ransom  being  His  own  blood  (i  Pet.  i.  19, 
Ep.  i.  7). — 2.  'I/lacr^oc  (expiatio)  points  to  the  mystic  oblation 
which  our  'Apxtepevg  j^ieyar  offered  once  for  all,  and  which 
availed  lldaKeadaL  rag  dimpTta^  (Heh.  ii.  1 7),  yea  availed  e}g 
aOhrjOLV  dfiapriag  (Heb.  ix.  26). — 3.  KaraAAay^  (reconciliatio) 
indicates  the  result  effected  by  Christ's  sacrifice  and  media- 
tion :  the  removal  of  the  enmity  between  mankind  and  God 
(Rom.  v.  10),  the  establishment  of  peace  sttI  yfjq  h  avOp^noig 
evdoKiag  (Luke  ii.  1 4). 


J  Q2  THE  PROPITIA  TION  FOR  SIN. 

Heb  X.       enly  Father,  i     God  so  loved  the  world  that 

5-10  ;  Eph. 

iii.  II  •  etc.  He  gave  His  only-begotte7i  So7i.  .  .  that 
16.  17  '  the  world  through  Him  might  be  saved. 
And  the  Son  so  loved  the  world  that  He  humbled 
Phil.  ii.  8.  Himself  and  became  obedient  even  nnto  death, 
yea  death  on  the  cross.  And  by  this  ineffable  sacrifice, 
this  sacrifice  made  to  God  and  coming  from  God, 
the   world's   salvation   and    reconciliation 

Rom  V. 

1°-  were  achieved.     Being  enemies,  we  were 

7'cconciled  to  God  through  the  death  of  His  Son. 
In  short,  sin,  the  sin  of  the  whole  world,  was  met 
T3  and   atoned    for.       Where   sin    aboimded, 

Rom.  V.  -  ' 

20.  grace  did  beyond  measure  abound.     God, 

R  m  viii  Sending  His  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of 
3-  ^  tJie  flesh  of  sin.  aiid  for  si?t,  condemned 

2.  Cor.  V.  ♦'  -^  -^ 

21-  sin  in  the  flesh.     God  made  him,  zvho  knew 

7iot  sin,  [to  be]  sin  for  7cs^  that  zve  might  become  the 
right eonsfiess  of  God  in  Him.  In  a  way  to  us 
incomprehensible,  the  everlasting  Son  of  the  Father 
took  upon  Him  man's  sin,  and  atoned  for  it ;  through 


"■  '■  C'est  dans  le  coeur  de  Dieu  meme  qu'il  faut  chercher  la 
raison  de  ses  misencordes,  et  les  causes  du  salut.  Le  pre- 
mier des  dons  de  Dieu  c'est  son  amour  ;  le  premier  don  de 
son  amour  au  pecheur  c'est  son  Fils.' — Quesnel,  Reflexions 
Morales,  \o\.  iv.  p.  44  (Ed.  1727)- 


THE  PROPITIA  TION  FOR  SIN.  j  03 

the  eternal  Spirit  He  ojfercd  Himself  zvith-    ^^^b  ix. 
out  fault  to  God  ;  and,  being  made  perfect,    Heb  v.  9 
He  became  the  originator  of  etejiial  salvation  ttnto 
all  them  that  obey  Him  ;  He  obtained  an    j^^r   .^ 
eternal  redemption.    And    through    Him,    ^-• 
and  along  with  Him,  His  faithful  people  receive  all 
good   things  :   from  God  He   is   made  nnto  them 
wisdom,  and  rigliteoiisness,  aiid  sanctifica-    ^  q^^  -^ 
tion,  and  redemption.  3°- 

Such  is  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ    ^^^  .- 
yesus.     Such    the   Gospel    proclamation    -4- 
concerning  reconciliation    and  the  Reconciler,  con- 
cerning the  removal  of  sin    and  the  bringing  in  of 
rierhteousness.       Through    this    One     is    s*^^  ^^"^ 

°  "^  ix.  24. 

preached  unto  us  forgiveness  of  sins.  Acts  xiii. 
Through  this  One  is  offered  unto  us  all  2  Pet.  i.  3. 
things  that  pertain  nnto  life  and  godliness,  all  things 
needful  for  our  present  and  eternal  blessedness. 
What  we  could  learn  nowhere  else,  we  learn  from 
the  sure  word  of  testimony,  yea  from  the  Rev.  1.  5. 
faithful  Witness  Himself,  from  the  Apos-  Heb,  Hi.  i. 
tie  and  High  Priest  of  our  confession,  the  Victor 
and  Victim  combined,i  Who  made  His  soul  a  guilt- 


^ '  Pro  nobis  Tibi  victor  et  victima,  et  ideo  victor  quia 


104  THE  PRO  PI  TI A  TION  FOR  SIN. 

offering ;  ^    Who  with   His   blood    blotted  02tt   the 
Is.  liii.  lo.    handivriting —  the  guilt-record  —  in  force 
° ' "'  ^^'   against  its  ;  Who  put  away  the  curse  by 
bearing  it,  yea  by  Himself  becoming  it.^ 

And  to  this  great  sacrifice,  this  all-determining, 
all-procuring  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God,  our 
thoughts  are  irresistibly  drawn  tc-:lay.  Jesus  Christ 
Gal.  iii.  i.]  is  again  evidently  set  fortJi  crucified  amongst 
us.  We  are  in  spirit  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  We 
see  the  mournful  procession  pass  out  of  the  gate  of 
the  city  ;  see  it  halt  at  Calvary  ;  see  the  Holy  One 
nailed  to  the  Cross  ;  see  the  cross  with  its  awful 
burden  raised  in  the  air.  We  gaze  at  the  surround- 
ing crowd  :  at  the  weeping  women,  at  the  callous 
soldiers,  at  the  malignant,  exulting  Jews.  We  be- 
hold the  consternation  and  horror  of  nature  ;  we 
listen  to  the  words  of  anguish  that   come  from  the 


victima;  pro  nobis  Tibi  sacerdos   et  sacrificium,  et  ideo  sa- 
cerdos  quia  sacrificium.' — Aug.  Confess,  x.  43. 

1  See  on  the  passage  Delitzsch's  Comm.  iiber  Jes.  p.  549 
ff.  (Ed.  2). 

2  yev6uevog  vTTsp  T//iicjv  Karapa  (Gal.  ifi.  1 3).  '  Ouis  auderet 
sine  blasphemire  metu  sic  loqui,  nisi  apostolus  pra^iret  ? ' — 
Bengel,  Gnomon^  in  1. 


THE  PR  OPITIA  TION  FOR  SIN.  j  q  . 

Sufferer  ;  we  shrink  together  as  we  see  the  spear 
pierce  His  side ;  we  feel  almost  a  relief  when  we 
see  the  head  bowed,  and  know  that -all  is  finished. 
But  how  do  we  regard  these  things  ?  Do  we  gaze 
as  we  should  gaze  if  one  of  the  sons  of  men,  some 
exemplary,  devoted  man,  were  unjustly  and  cruelly 
sacrificed  by  his  enemies  ?  If  we  do,  we  profane 
that  scene  at  Calvary.  For  no  other  death  may  be 
compared  with  that  death,  no  other  sufferings  with 
those  sufferings,  no  other  sacrifice  with  that  sacri- 
fice. For  that  death  was  a  death  of  expiation  and 
atonement ;  that  sacrifice  a  sacrifice  for  See  Dan. 
sin;  that  Sufferer  was  'cut  off'  not  for  J'^^pef'^i 
Himself  but  for  others.  He  suffered  the  ^^* 
yust  for  the  unjttst,  He  poured  out  his  so7il  unto 
death,  and  was  numbered  amongst  the  [Is.  liii.  12. 
transgressors,  while  He  bare  the  sin  of  many.,  and 
interceded  for  the  transgressors. 

Till  we  believe  this,  we  are,  at  best,  but  imper- 
tinent spectators  at  the  Crucifixion.  We  had  bet- 
ter pass  on,  and  gaze  at  something  else  :  at  the 
glory  of  the  setting  sun,  or  at  some  flower  which  is 
gathering  itself  up  for  sleep.  But  if  we  do  believe 
this,  believe  that  that  death  was   for  us,  that  tlie 


1 06  THE  PROFIT/ A  TION  FOR  SIN. 

eternal  Son  of  God  zuas  wounded  for  our  transgrcs- 
Is.  liil.  5,  sions  and  bruised  for  our  misdeeds,  and 
that  tJie  Lord  laid  on  Him  the  iniqnity 
of  ns  all :  then,  surely,  our  contemplation  should 
produce  in  us  something  more  than  sentiment,  and 
even  than  sorrow.  It  should  produce  in  us  a  pro- 
found dread  of  sin,  and  a  profound  hatred  oi  sni.  It 
should  stir  us  up  to  a  life  of  devotedness  and  love 
to  such  a  Friend,  such  a  Saviour.  The  mystery  of 
Christ's  sacrifice  we  shall  never,  on  this  side  of  the 
grave,  fathom.  Perhaps  even  on  the  other  side  of 
I  Peter  i.  12.]  the  grave  we  shall  still  be  like  the  angels 
who  desire  to  look  into  these  things  But  the  cost 
Cmnp.  2       of  Christ's    sacrifice,  the   graciousness  of 

Cor.  viii.  ^ 

9.  His  sacrifice,  the  marvellous  love  to  man 

which  it  displayed,  these  at  least  are  in  our  appre- 
hension, and  these,  if  we  are  true  disciples,  will  be 
a  perpetual  check  upon  us,^  as  well  as  a  per- 
petual incentive  to  action,  and  a  perpetual  theme 
Rev.  V.  12.  of  adoration  and  praise.  Worthy  is  the 
Lamb  that  zuas  slain  to  reeeive  the pozven 
vv.  9,  10.     cind  riehes^  ajid  zuisdom,  and  strength,  and 


1    II  yap  a^oTr;;  rov  Xpiorov  owex^i  w'l^  (2  Cor.  v.  14). 


THE  PROPITIATION  FOR  SIN.  jq^ 

honour,  and  glory,  and  blessing !  For  Thou 
didst  redeem  us  to  God  by  Thy  blood  .  .  .  .  and 
didst  make  ns  to  our  God  a  kingdom  and 
priests. 


^y^r"*"^    ^MBP 


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